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CEN.WADE HAMPTON. 



SOUTHERN HISTOKY OF THE WAR. 



THE 



LAST YEAR OF THE WAR 



BY 

EDWAED A. POLLARD, 

AtTTHOE OF "FIRST, SECOND, AND THIED TEAES OF THE "WAB." 



4 

NEW YORK: 
CHARLES B. R I C H AR D S O IS", 

540 BEO AD W AY. 
1866. 



Entered according to Act of Conaress, in the year 1865, 

By CHAKLES B. EICHAEDSON, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of 

New York. 



\a^^ 



PREFACE 



The author continues in this volume, and closes with it, his 
Popular Annals of the War. He is well aware that he has 
made but a rude compilation of events, in this hasty and unpre- 
tending work ; ■ but he hopes that in his four volumes of plain 
narrative, he has at least laid a foundation for an elaborate and 
well-digested History of the War, which he proposes to him- 
self as the work of years, and entertains as the literary ambi- 
tion of his life. 

The writer may properly say here, with the completion of 
this volume of hasty narrative, tliat he designs now to betake 
himself to the composition of a fair and standard history of the 
War in America ; of which so far he has constructed scarcely 
more than the skeleton. Resolved as he is by just and patient 
labors to rescue the truth from the peculiarly industrious mis- 
representation of the Yankee, and ambitions thus to do a most 
important service to his countrymen of the South, and duly 
vindicate their name to posterity, he shall, in his large and new 
design, trust much to their aid — especially that of their mil- 
itary leaders and public men — in giving him the benefit of in- 
telligent advice, and in collecting the ill-preserved and disject- 
ed historical testimony of the struggle of the Confederates. 

The announcement of this new work will be shortly made in 
a more proper form, and with a fuller detail of the author's 
purposes and requests. 



PKEFACE. 



But one word more is not inappropriate here. It is to re- 
mind the people of the South that the very fact that the war 
has gone against them makes it more important that its records 
should not fall entirely to the pens of their enemies. All per- 
sons in the Son'th who assist in gathering the true testimony of 
their unfortunate struggle, perform a last, but most important 
oflSce of faithful love, and do a noble work in rescuing the 
name of a lost cause from the slanders of t^^ose who, having 
been our accusers and executioners in this present time, would 
also be our judges at the Bar of History. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER 1. 

Condition of the Confederacy in the early summer of 1864. — The expectations and 
hopes of the South. — Grant's " On to Richmond." — Ulysses S. Grant and his com- 
mand. — His services and character. — The Bawles of the Wilderness. — A heroic 
stand. — Heth's and Wilco^x's divisions. — A critical conjuncture. — Grant's whole 
army on the threshold of ruin. — Grant's change of front and General Lee's new 
line. — The Northern newspapers go into ecstasies. — The Battles of Spottstl- 
VANiA Courthouse. — A crisis. — A thrilling scene. — " General Lee to the rear !" — 
Six days of battle. — Grant's obstinacy. — Sheridan's expedition. — A fight at Yellow 
Tavern. — Death of General " Jeb" Stuart. — Butler's movement up the James. — 
Beauregard drives him to Bermuda Hundred. — " The Buzzard and the Falcon." — 
The Enemy's Operations in Western Virginia. — The combination there. — Three 
movements.— Sigel's defeat at Newmarket. — McCausland checks Crook at Dublin 
Depot. — Morgan defeats Averill at Wytheville.— Grant moves down the Valley of 
tho Rappahannock.— Engagements near Hanover Junction. — Grant crosses the Fa- 
munkey. — He is within a few miles of Richmond. — The true theory of his move- 
ments, defeat, not victory. — His immense losses.— Lee's admirable movements 
and positive successes. — Nonsense of the newspapers Page 13 



CHAPTER II. 

Grant essays the passage of the Chickahominy. — Battle of Cold Harbor. — A bril- 
liant and extraordinary victory for the Confederates. — Grant's stock of expedients. 
— He decides to move to the south side of the James. — Operations in Western 
ViRQiNLA. — Shocking improvidence of the Richmond authorities. — Hunter cap- 
tures Staunton. — Death of General Jones.— Grant's new combination.— Hunter's 
part.— Sheridan's part. — The Battles of Petersburg. — Butler attempts to steal 
a march upon "the Cockade City."— Engagements of the 16th, I7th, and 18th of 
June.— Port Walthal Junction.— Defeat of Sheridan at Trevillian Station.— Defeat 
of Hunter near Lynchburg.— Morgan draws Burbridge into Kentucky.— Two af- 
fairs on the Petersburg and Weldon Railroad.— The Great Mine Explosion.— A 
scene of infernal horror.— Yankee comments on Grant's failures.— Great de- 
pression in the North.— Mr. Chase's declarations.— General Lee's sense of success. 
—His singular behavior.— The Sinking of the Privateer Alabama.— A Yan- 
kee trick of concealed armor.— The privateer service of the Confederates.— In- 
teresting statistics Pag-e 1:9 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER III. 

Sherman's campaign in Georgia. — How parallel with that in Virginia. — The tasks 
of Grant and Sherman compared. — Numerical inferiority of General Johnston's 
forces. — His proposition to the Eichmond authorities. — Pragmatism of President 
Davis and his secretary. — Engagement in Eesaca Valley. — General Johnston's 
designs. — Why he retreated. — His disappointment of a buttle at Cassville. — En- 
gagement AT New Hope Church. — True theory of the retrograde movement of 
Johnston. —Battle of Kenesaw Mountain. — Sherman's confession. — Sherman 
master of the Chattahoochee. — Johnston falls back to Atlanta. — The ve.xed ques- 
tion of Johnston's retreat. — What it surrendered. — What it secured. — Its strategic 
advantages. — Tlie enemy's movements in Virginia and Georgia both in check. — 
Disappointment of the enemy. — Statistics of Yankee recruiting. — Another Con- 
federate success. — Defeat of Sturgis. — " The Avengers of Fort Pillow."— Barbar- 
ities of the enemy's summer campaign. — Augmentation of Yankee ferocity. — Its 
effect on the Confederates. — Offensive operation of the Confederates.— Three 
projects of invasion. — Early's Invasion of Maryland, &c.— Sigel's retreat. — 
Battle OF Monocaoy Bridge. — Early loses the great opportunity of 1864. — Results 
of his expedition. — Engagement at Kernstown. — Morgan's Invasion of Ken- 
tucky. — His failure. — Price's Invasion of MissouRi.-^Pilot Knob. — General Ew- 
ing's retreat. — Price retires Page 46 



CHAPTER lY. 

Great revulsion in the public mind of the North in the summer of 1864. — A general 
outcry for peace. — Spirit of Yankee newspapers. — The Niagara Falls "Commis- 
sion." — The Jacques-Gilmore Affair.— Sorry figure of the Confederacy in these 
negotiations. — The question of peace negotiations in the Confederacy. — True 
method of peace. — Manifesto of the Confederate Congress. — Position of President 
Davis — His letter to Governor Vance, of North Carolina. — The Chicago Conven- 
tion, etc. — Speeches, etc. — The real programme of the Democratic party.— Why 
it broke down. — No virtue in public opinion in the North. — The true peace men 
of the North. — Their Convention at Cincinnati. — A reaffirmation of Jefi'ersonian 
Democracy. — A masterpiece of statesmanship. — The Presidential campaign of 
18ti4. — The rival administrations at Richmond and Washington. — A compara- 
tive view of Northern despotism. — Tlie con.scription and impressment laws of the 
Confederacy. — The offerings of Southern patriotism. — The Yankee record in the 
matter of slavery. — " Military necessity."— The Yankee record in the matter of 
civil liberty. — An outrage upon history , Page 63 



CHAPTER Y. 

The business of blockade-running. — Its risks. — Interesting statistics. — Value of the 
port of Mobile. — Naval Fight and Capture of the Forts in Mobile Bay. — A 
frightful disparity of force. — Heroic fight of the ram Tennessee.— Absurd boasts 
of the Yankees. — Surrender of Fort Gaines. — Fall of Fort Morgan. — The Georgia 
Campaign. — Its importance. — Jolinston's situation at Atlanta. — His removal by 
President Davis. — A fatal error. — Lieutenant-Gencral Hood. — The Battles of 
Atlanta — The Fall of "the Gate City." — Reckless and desperate fighting — 



CONTENTS. 7 

Yankee raid on the Macon road. — Hood's " magnificent advance." — Bombard- 
ment of Atlanta. — Hood's fatal mistake. — Sherman's new movement. — He "cuts 
the Confederates in two." — The Yankees in Atlanta. — Sherman's cruelties. — His 
depopulation of Atlanta. — Enormity of the order. — Sherman as a pacificator. — 
Governor Brown's letter. — Position of Vice-President Stephens. — Effects of the 
fall of Atlanta. — President Davis' Macon speech. — Its swollen tone. — Capture of 
THE Confederate Privateer Florida. — Its cowardice and outrage. — Yankee idea 
of glory. — The Destruction of the Confederate Eam Albemarle. — Yankee es- 
timation of the exploit. — The North Carolina Sounds. — The St. Albans Raid. — 
Stories of the savage vengeance of the Confederates. — How much truth there was in 
them 81 



CHAPTER YI. 



The Richmond lines. — The Fall of Fort Harrison, etc. — The attempt to retake it. 
— Why it failed. — Engagement on the Charles City Road. — Death of General 
Gregg. — Engagement on the Williamsburg and Boydton Roads. — Another 
Grand Attempt on Richmond. — A shameful failure. — The "electoral necessity" at 
Wasliington. — The Campaign in the Valley of Virginia. — Early's mission in the 
Valley. — How a part of the combination to protect Richmond. — Sheridan's com- 
mand. — His strategy. — Battle near Winchester. — A critical moment. — The en- 
emy's centre broken. — He recovers. — Misconduct of the Confederate cavalry. — 
Early retreats to Fisher's Hill. — The Battle of Fisher's Hill. — A most unex- 
pected reverse to the Confederates. — Misgivings and alarm in Richmond.— The 
capture of Staunton. — Sheridan's devastations of the Valley. — " Barn-burning." — 
An affair of Rosser's cavalry. — " The! Savior of the Valley.'' — Battle of Cedar 
Creek. — Two-thirds of Sheridan's army completely routed. — Early's awkward 
pause.— Plunder of the Yankee camp. — The enemy regains the day. — Shameful 
rout of the Confederates. — The Valley campaign virtually ended. — Southwestern 
Virginia. — Breckinridge's campaign. — The Yankees capture the salt-works at 
Saltville. — Destruction of the works 98 



CHAPTER YH. 



Mr. Lincoln's extraordinary triumph.— Reassembling of the Richmond Congress. 

President Davis' review of the situation. — A memorable boast. — New demands of 
the Confederate conscription.— Military resources of the North and South com- 
pared.— Plethoric wealth of the North.—" Twenty against one."— Two advantages 
the South had in the war.— Its conditions of success. — The value of endurance on 
the part of the South. — The Hood-Sherman Campaign. — Speeches at headquarters. 
—Hood commences his march.— Capture of Dalton.— Slierman follows as far as 
Gaylesville.— He turns back.— Georgia and South Carolina " at his mercy."— An 
extraordinary campaign.- Hood and Sherman marching away from each "other.— 
Hood crosses into Tennes.'fee.- The Yankee retreat to Franklin.— The Battle of 
Franklin.— Great loss in Confederate officers.— The enemy retreats to Nashville.— 
Battle OF Nashville.— The giving way of Bates' division.— A shameful stampede. 
—Hood's losses.— The whole scheme of Confederate defence west of the AUe- 
ghauies broken down.— The errors of Hood's campaign 116 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER Vm. 



Sherman's march from the mouutains to the sea. — Yankee boasts, — Easy nature of 
Sherman's enterprise. — " Grand" mistake of the Confederates. — The burninf^ of 
Atlanta. — Five thousand liouses in ruins. — Sherman's route to Milledgeville. — 
Second stage of the march to Millen. — Last stage of the march. — Wheeler's cavalry. 
— The fall of Savannah. — Capture of Fort McAllister. — Probable surprise of 
Hardee. — The Confederates evacuate Savannah. — Sherman's Christmas-gift to Mr. 
Lincoln. — The true value of Sherman's exploit. — His own estimation of it. — De- 
spondency in the South. — Depletion of the Confederate armies. — The exchange op 
PRISONERS, etc. — Bad faith of the Yankees. — Their misrepresentations. — The ques- 
tion of recaptured slaves. — A Yankee calculation. — The Washington Government 
responsible for the sufferings of Yankee prisoners. — How capital was made out of 
their sufferings. — A game with " sick" prisoners. — How " rebel barbarities" were 
manufactured. — Noble conduct of General Grant. — Its commentary on the Wash- 
ington cabinet. — His " victory" over that body 130 

CHAPTER IX. 

The blockade at Wilmington. — How ineffective. — First expedition against Fort 
Fisher. — Butler's powder-ship. — The two days' bombardment. — Landing of 
Butler's troops. — Butler decides not to attack. — His sudden departure. — He is 
removed from command. — Second expedition against Fort Fisher. — Fall of 
Wilmington. — Landing of Terry's command. — Movements of General Jloke. — The 
assault on the fort. — A feu (Tenfer. — Desperate fighting. — The Confederates 
overpowered. — Surrender of Fort Fisher. — Evacuation of Fort Anderson. — Yankee 
occupation of Wilmington. — How a part of General Sherman's campaign in the 
Carolinas. — Sherman's sixty days in the Carolixas. — Direction of his march. — 
Crossing the Savannah River. — Mismanagement of tlie Confederate troops. — Sher- 
man at Branchville. — The fall of Charleston. — Hardee joins Beauregard. — 
Conflagration in Charleston.— Explosion at the railroad depot. — A scan-ed city. — 
Charleston as seen through Yankee eyes. — Capture and burning of (/Olumbia. — 
Wild and savage scenes of pillage. — The city on fire. — Four thousand citizens 
homeless. — Sherman's march northward. — His organization of " bummers." — 
The column of smoke. — The Yankees at Winnsboro'. — More of the enemy's atro- 
cities. — Sherman's feint upon Charlotte. — His occupation of Fayetteville. — Hamp- 
ton attacks Kilpatrick. — Sherman's appointment of a rendezvous with Seliofield. 
^Hardee's fight near Averysboro'. — What he did with half a corps of Confeder- 
ates. — The Battle of Bentonville. — Success of the Confederates. — No decisive 
results. — Sherman's move towards Goldsboro'. — Schofield's movement. — Sher- 
man's success. — His congratulatory order. — A military conference at City Point, 
Virginia 141 

CHAPTER X. 

The date of distrust in the Southern mind. — Oliservation of General Lee. — A pecu- 
liar moral condition of tlie Confederacy. — Want of confidence in President Davis' 
administration. — Impatience of the prolongation of the war. — Davis' unpopularity. 
— Weak attempts in Congress at a counter-revolution. — General Lee made coni- 
mander-in chief. — The title a nominal one. — The Virginia delegation and the Pres- 
ident. — Mr. Seddou's resignation. — President Davis' defiance to Congress. — The 



CONTKXTS. 9 

Davie-Johnston imbroglio. — Senator Wigfall's speeches. — Johnston's restoration. 
— President Davis' opinion of homoeopathy.— Sullen and indifferent disposition of 
the Southern people. — How they might have accomplished their iiniependence. — 
Review of the military situation. — Analysis of the peace feeling in the North. — 
How it w:iB likely to be developed by a long war. — The Union not the enemy's sine 
qua non. — Two contingencies tliat limited the war. — Tlie wortldess title of Yankee 
invasion. — "Cob-web" occupation of the Confederacy. — Note: an address in- the 
Kichmond newspapers. — The two fatal facts in the condition of the Confedenicy. — 
The Fortress Monroe Commission. — How it was brought about. — The Yankee 
ultimatum. — Official narrative of the Confederate commissioners.— A new attempt 
to rally the spirit of the South. — The meeting at the African church in Richmond. 
— President Davis' boasts. — His noble allusion to liistory. — How the cause of the 
Confederacy was in danger. — Proposition to arm the slaves of the South. — 
Indicative of a desperate condition of the public mind. — General Lee's opinion. — 
The slaveholding interest. — Its selfishness and insolence. — A weak concli;sion of 
the matter. — "Catching at straws" in the Confederate Congress. — Cluiracter of 
this body 159 



CHAPTER XL 

The last address and appeal of the Confederate 'Congress. — The war in a geographical 
point of view. — The Confederate Congress and President Davis. — The e.xecu- 
TrvE dep.vrtments. — A sharp recrimination.— A committee of the Senate reply to 
President Davis. — Maladministration in the War Department. — Two-thirds of the 
Confederate Army absentees. — Lee loses nearly half his army by desertions. — The 
other half threatened with starvation. — Ample supply of food in the country. — 
The fault in the Commissary Department. — Commissary Northrop a " pepper-doc- 
tor" as the favorite of Davis. — Analysis of President Davis' character for firmness. 
— How Northrop starved Eichmond. — History of the Confederate Commissa- 
riat. — Secret testimony in Congress. — President Davis' refusal to trade cotton for 
meat. — Persistent delusion about "king cotton." — Venality of the enemy. — Davis 
takes no advantage of it.-.-Eecord of the rations in Lee's army. — Startling statis- 
tics. — Attempts to get meat from Europe. — General Lee's army without meat. — 
His telegram to President Davis. — The necessities of the Commissary Department 
summed up in secret session of Congress. — But little done to meet theni. — How the 
caiise of tlie Confederacy would have failed without a catastrophe of arms. — Tlie 
military narrative resumed.— Military events in Virgini.*. in the winter of 
1864-5. — Sheridan's raid. — Thirteen counties traversed. — Amount of destruction 
accomplished by the enemy. — The Richmond lines. — Hatcher's Run. — E.xtensioii 
of Grant's line. — Battle of Hares Hill. — Gallantry of Gordon's command. — Vigor 
ind brilliancy of the fighting of che Confederates. — No decisive results 178 



CHAPTER XIL 

The Battles around Petersburg.- -The movement of Sheridan's cavalry. — The Five 
Forks. — General Lee's counter-movement. — Repulse of Sheridan. — Re-enforced by 
Grant. — The Confederates flanked at tlie Five Forks. — The situation in front of 
Petersburg. — Lee's lines broken in three places. — Capture of Fort Mahone by the 
enemy. — General Lee loses his entire line of defence, and the Southside Railroad. 
— The Evacuation of Richmond. — Great surprise in the Confederate capital.— The 
news in the churches. — Dr. Hoge's address. — Consternation and uproar in the 



10 CONTENTS. 

streets. — The city on fire. — A reckless military order. — Scenes of horror. — Mob*! r)f 
plunderers. — The scene at the commissary depot. — Weitzel's entry into Eichmond. 
— Suffering of tlie people. — Scene on Capitol Square. — Devastations of the fire. — 
The burnt district. — Weitzel's and Shepley's general orders. — Yankee rejoicings 
over the fall of Kichmond. — Bell-ringings, hymns, and dancing in the streets of 
New York. — A grand illumination in Washington. — Yankee mottoes. — A memor- 
able speech 191 



CHAPTER XIII. 

What the Confederates anticipated on the fall of Richmond. — Two opinions. — Pro- 
phetic words of the Eichmond Examiner. — Disintegration of Lee's army. — The 
line of his retreat.— Grant's pursuit.— Sheridan captures prisoners, guns, and wag- 
ons. — Sheridan's dispatch. — Change in the movements of both armies. — The situa- 
tion at Appomattox Court-house. — How Lee was surrounded. — Surrender of thb 
Army of Northern Virginia.— A frightful demoralization of the army. — More than 
two-thirds of the men deserted. — Pickett's division. — Eeasons to suppose that Gen- 
eral Lee had predetermined a surrender on moving from Kichmond and Peters- 
burg. — Straggling of his soldiers. — Official correspondence concerning the surren- 
der. — Interview between General Lee and General Grant at McLean's house. — How 
General Lee looked. — Grant's generous conduct. — Scenes between the lines of the 
two armies.- -An informal conference of officers. — How the news of surrender was 
received in the Yankee army. — How received at Washington. — Secretary Stanton's 
dispatch. — President Lincoln's speech. — " Dixie" in Washington.— General Lee's 
farewell address to his army. — His return to Richmond.— Effect of Lee's surrender. 
— General Johnston's department. — Movements in the Southwest. — Fall of Mo- 
bile. — Wilson's cavalry expedition through Alabama and Georgia. — Surrender 
OF Johnston's army. — Sherman's " basis of negotiations" repudiated at Wash- 
ington. — The policy of the Northern Government unmasked. — Sherman's reply. — 
Surrender of Taylor's army. — Surrender of Kirby's Smith's army. — "War 
meetings" in Texas. — W ant of public resolution.— The last act of the war. — A sud- 
den peace, and what it implied 207 



APPENDIX No. I. 
I. 

Political Iconoclasm in America. — The two idols of "the Constitution" and "the 
Union." — Extravagant praises of the Constitutien. — Its true value. — It contained a 
noble principle and glaring defects.— Character of the founders of the Constitution. 

Hamilton. — Franklin. — His cookery-book philosophy. — His absurdities in the 

Convention. — The cull for the Convention that formed the Constitution. — Three 
parties in the Convention. — The idea of a " national" government. — Conflict be- 
tween the small and large States.— The result of this, the distinguishing feature of 
the Constitution. — That feature an accident, and not an a ■priori discovery.— Enu- 
meration of defects in the Constitution. — Tlie weakness and ignorance of its framers. 
Its one conspicuous virtue and original principle. — (}ombination of State-rights 



CONTENTS. 



11 



■with a common anthority.— How involved in the construction of the Senate.— How 
made more precise in tiie Amendments.— Particulars in which the element of the 
States was recognized.— A new rule of construction applied to the American Union. 
—The necessity which originated it.— The Constitution of the United States not a 

■ political revolution.— The creature of the States.— True interpretation of its moral 
grandeur.— The bond of the Union a voluntary one.- No mission apart from the 
States.— Why coercion of the States was not necessary.— How the Union stood 
for an American nationality.— Its power to reach individuals.— 'Y:\ie. Union, in 
practice, rather a rough companionship than a national identity.— Eight of seces- 
8ion.— Not necessary to discuss it— The development of the Union a North and 
South, and not disintegrated States.— Profound invention of Calhoun of South Car- 
olina.— How it was a Union measure, and not " Nullification." 23S 

II. 

What the American colonies contended for.— Burke's idea.— The first American Con- 
gress.— Its demands.— How the question of independence was developed.— Vir- 
ginia the first to move for indepeudence.— The Declaration of Independence.— The 
Articles of Confederation.— Diverse character and circumstances of the colonies.— 
The gentry of Virginia and the Carolinas.— Early type of the Frt^/^e^.— Difference 
of races.— Its value in historical inquiries.— Commercial spirit of New England 
in the revolution.— The nature and the value of " the Confederation."— John Ad- 
ams' idea.—" Perpetual Union."— The Confederation a makeshift of tlie war.— 
" State-rights" in the treaty pf 1783.— How the revolution succeeded.— Its illustra- 
tion of th^e value of endurance.— Liberty invariably the fruit of rebellion.— The 
two conditions of all history ^^^ 

III. 

The times of Thomas Jefferson.- Manners and appearance of the man.— His Democ- 
racy.— Its application to the relations of the States and Federal Government.— Ori- 
gin of the Republican or Democratic party.— The idea of consolidation.— New 
York, and the New England States.— Early political preaching in New England.— 
The Alien and Sedition laws.— How tlie latter infringed the rights of the States.— 
The Kentucky Resolutions.— A fact not in the record.— Mr. Jefferson on " nuUifi: 
cation."— Why the Kentucky Resolutions ^Qr& modified.— The Virginia Resolutions. 
—The replies of the New England States, and of New York.— Jefferson's triumph. 
— A new era at Washington • • • • '^^' 

IV. 

The slavery question.— A libel on political nomenclature.— A brief moral de- 
fence of negro servitude in the South.— The history of its establishment.— 
Accommodation of the slavery question iii the Constitution.— Political history of 
the question.— The Hartford Convention. .^Two blows aimed at the South.— Devel- 

■ opuient of the slavery controversy.— Mr. JeflTerson's opinion as to slavery ia 
the territories.— The Missouri restriction.— The initial point of the war of «<fC(!io««.— 
Mr. Jefferson's alarm.— The trace of disunion.— Real causes of conflict between 
the North and the South.— The slavery question subordinate and yet conspicu- 
ous.— Why so ?— How it was bound up in the conflict between State-rights and 
consolidation.— Northern civilization.— An insolent democracy.— Yankee " gentle- 
naen."— Plainness of the South.— A noble type of civilization.— Effect of slavery 
on the political and social character of the South.— Yankee vulgarity.— Why the 
South was the nursery of American statesmen 266 



12 ' CONTENTS. 



Y. 

Contrast between the North and South in material progress. — The times of Andrew 
Jackson. — The tariff controversy. — Calhoun and Webster as representative men. 
— The latter a sophomore in American politics. — Mr. Webster's private correspon- 
dence and poetry. — His superficial accomplishments. — " Nullification," another 
libel of political nomenclature. — A true explanation and analysis of Mr. Calhoun's 
scheme to save and perpetuate the Onion. — Jefferson Davis' defence of Calhoun. 
New England's regard for the Union. — The veneration of the Union peculiarly a 
Southern sentiment. — Mr. Calhoun's Fort Hill speech. — The ignorance or hypoc- 
risy of Webster and his party. — How the South was driven to " disunion.". . . 274 

YI. 

A Fourth of July sentiment in 1851. — Slavery not the Cause of Disunion. — The War 
of 1861. — What it has decided. — The incense of weak minds to the Yankee. — 
Last sentiment of President Davis 284 



APPENDIX No. II. 

KECONSTEUCTION. 

Pbovisional Governments. — The Mississippi question. — The Amnesty Peoola- 
MATioN. — The franchise in Virginia. — Parcled prisoners. — Trade. — The defi- 
nition of " loyalty." — Message of Provision al-Goveenor Johnson of Georgia. 
— Message of Provisional-Governor Perry of South Carolina. — The last six 
days of the Confedebaoy 287 



OFFICIAL EEPOETS. 



Kepokts of Lieutenant-General Longstreet 325, S58 

Eepokts or Likijtenant-General Jaokson S37 



THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 



CHAPTER I. ■ 

Condition of the Confederacy in the early summer of 1864. — The expectations and 
hopes of the South. — Grant's " On to Richmond." — Ulysses S. Grant and his com- 
mand. — His services and character. — The Battles of the Wilderness. — A heroio 
stand. — Heth's and Wilcox's divisions. — A critical conjuncture. — Grant's whole 
army on the threshold of ruin.— Grant's change of front and General Lee's new 
line. — The Northern newspapers go into ecstasies. — The Battles of Spottsyl- 
VANiA Courthouse. — A crisis. — A thrilling scene. — "General Lee to the rear!" — 
Six days of battle. — Grant's obstinacy. — Sheridan's expedition. — A fight at Yellow 
Tavern. — Death of General " Jeb" Stuart. — Butler's movement up the James. — 
Beauregard drives him to Bermuda Hundred. — " The Buzzard and the Falcon." — 
The Enemy's Operations in Western Virginia. — The combination there.— Three 
movements.— Sigel's defeat at Newmarket. — McCausland checks Crook at Dublin 
Depot. — Morgan defeats Averill at Wytheville.— Grant moves down the Valley of 
the Rappahannock.— Engagements near Hanover Junction. — Grant crosses the Pa- 
munkey. — He is within a few miles of Richmond. — The true theory of his move- 
ments, defeat, not victory. — His immense losses. — Lee's admirable movements 
and positive successes. — Nonsense of the newspapers. 

The spirit of tlie Southern Confederacy was scarcely ever 
more buoyant than in the month of May, 1864. The confidence 
of its people in the ultimate accomplishment of their independ- 
ence was so firm and universal, that any other conclusion was 
but seldom referred to in general conversation or in the pre- 
vision of one's private affairs ; and in Richmond and elsewhere 
the hope was freely indulged that the campaign of 1864 was 
to be decisive of the war, and to crown the efforts of the South 
with peace and independence. 

There had been abundant occasion for this revival of confi- 
dence in the public mind of the Confederacy. The winter just 
past had been one of a large aggregate of success to the Con- 
federate arms. Several brilliant expeditions had been planned 
and accomplished by them ; while on the enemy's side all the 
work he had cut out for the winter had come to grief, and 
every one of his elaborate enterprises in that season had failed, 



14 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 

with a concurrence of disaster most remarkable in the history 
of the war. 

The invasion of Florida had been a shocking failure. Thomas 
had been repulsed in North Georgia, and was held completely 
in check there, Sherman's grand expedition in the Southwest 
and his famous experiment of " the strategic triangle" had 
come to the most absurd and disastrous conclusion — " Half of 
his army," said this chieftain, " went to Memphis and half 
went to h — 11." Banks's proposed conquest of the Trans- 
Mississippi had been to the Confederates the occasion of that 
celebrated Red River campaign, the most glorious in the pages 
of their history, in which they not only reclaimed the coast 
and frontier of the Trans-Mississippi, but left the Massachusetts 
hero scarcely more of Louisiana than was covered by his 
pickets. And there had been other positive successes on the 
Confederate side. Forrest, by long and rapid marches, had 
spread terror along the banks of the Mississippi, and cut a 
swath across the State of Kentucky ; and on the eastern fron- 
tier the expeditions of Pickett and of Hoke had been brilliant 
events for the Confederacy, leaving the enemy only two places, 
"Washington and Newborn', on the coast of North Carolina. 

No wonder that the events of this winter were accepted by 
the Confederates as happy auguries for the ensuing campaign, 
and fresh occasions of hope and confidence. Their internal 
aifairs, too, had improved along with this current of military 
success. The army had been replenished by an enlarged con- 
scription ; a happy revolution was already going on in the 
finances under the operation of the law which curtailed the cur- 
rency thirty-three per cent.; supplies had been accumulated 
during the winter, and the storehouses of Richmond were filled 
to bursting with the subsistence that had been gathered, 
through the course of several months, for the great campaign 
in Yirginia. 

Such were the extraordinary prospects with which the Con- 
federacy entered upon the summer campaign of 1864. A gen- 
eral opinion had taken possession of the public mind that the 
North would make its grand effort in this year for the conquest 
of the South ; and that even negative results would be fatal to 
the enemy, as they would be insufficient to appease the grow- 
ing popular impatience of the war in the North, or sustain any 



THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 15 

new demand of the government at "Washington for men and 
means. 

This opinion was right, at least so far as it contemplated an 
extraordinary exertion on the part of the North. Two grand 
campaigns for the summer of 1864 had been elaborately 
planned at Washington. They were the parallel operations of 
Grant and Sherman in Virginia and in Georgia. 



GRANT S " ON TO RICHMOND. 

General Ulysses S. Grant had hitherto been known in the 
North as the great general of the West, and the Yankee news- 
papers had entitled him the hero of Fort Donelson and Yicks- 
burg. He was now to answer the eager expectation of the 
public by a campaign of unrivalled importance in Virginia. 
His elevation had been rapid. Four years ago the man who 
commanded all the armies of the North had been occupied 
with the obscure experiments of life in the successive callings 
of farmer, auctioneer, and tanner ; and at the beginning of the 
war, having at first been refused an active military command 
by Governor Yates of Illinois, he was accidentally selected to 
lead a regiment of raw recruits. 

The grade of lieutenant-general in the armies of the United 
States had been conferred by brevet only on General Scott, 
but as an actual rank in time of war had only been bestowed 
on General Washington. It was revived by the Federal Con- 
gress, and the commission conferred on General Grant, the 
hero of tlie West, who, despite the gap in his successes at Shi- 
loh in 1862, and his narrow escape on that occasion from being 
consigned to obscurity by the ungenerous and characteristic 
changes in the fickle popular idolatry of the North, had had a 
long run of success, and was in advance of all his contempo'ra- 
ries in the coarse Yankee measure of greatness. The commis- 
sion bore date March 2, 1864 ; and on the 9th of that month 
President Lincoln presented to Grant in person this commis- 
sion, assuring him of his own cordial personal concurrence in 
the measure. General Halleck, hitherto general-in-chief, was 
relieved from duty, and made chief of staff to the army at 
Washington. 



16 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

The armies put under the command of Grunt presented one 
of the most imposing arrays in modern history. They dotted 
the conntry from the Potomac to tlie Rio Grande, and thence 
around and along the sea-coast, and back to the Chesapeake. 
It was said that the Yankee lines might be traced by the smoke 
of camp-fires through a zig-zag journey of five thousand miles. 

A few words may be bestowed here upon the character of 
the man, the designation of whom as the military idol of the 
l^orth was not extravagant. General Grant had but little educa- 
tion, and was a man of not much more than ordinary ability ; 
but he had a Scotch pertinacity of character which was a con- 
stant and valuable assistance in his military campaigns. As a 
commander he possessed a rare faculty of combination. He 
was a man who gathered his forces, who could " afford to 
wait," who dealt deliberate and heavy strokes ; but he lacked 
that quickness of perception which decides single fields and 
illustrates military genius. His heart was certainly not a bad 
one, and his disposition was above most of the little tricks of 
the Yankee. On particular occasions he did some noble things, 
as we shall see in other parts of this volume. He was one of 
the few Yankee notabilities who, without affectation and in 
sincerity, avoided sensations and displays, had a horror of be- 
ing " lionized," and lived for history rather than for the gazette. 
He had an imperturbable good-humor. In his appearance and 
manners he was very plain ; but it was not a plebeian plain- 
ness ; it was the plainness of a man trained to habits of self- 
reliance, who never lost the dignity and self-poise which come 
from a consciousness of one's merits without vanity. 

From the moment of receiving his commission as lieutenant- 
general. Grant had transferred his personal presence to the 
Army of the Potomac, leaving Sherman as his vicegerent to 
carry out the Western campaign. Warren, Sedgwick, and 
Hancock were made the corps commanders of this army, and 
Burnside was given a separate arm}^ corps. Butler, at Fortress 
Monroe, was reinforced by the Tenth Corps from Charleston 
under Gillmore, and the Eighteenth from the West under 
" Baldy" Smith. To the infamous hero of New Orleans was 
allotted the task of cutting off the city of Richmond from its 
southern lines of communication ; while Sigel, operating in the 
Shenandoah Valley, was to cut the railroad which by way of 



THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAK. 17 

Gordonsville connected Lee's army with his principal base of 
supplies at Lynchburg. 

Thus were the preparations completed for the most moment- 
ous campaign in American history. On Wednesday, May 4, 
eight weeks from the day Grant received his commission, his 
two grand columns were ready to move — the one well in hand 
on the north bank of the Ilapidan, seventy miles north of 
Richmond; and the other at Fortress Monroe, one day's sail 
from Richmond on the James. 



THE BATTLES OF THE WILDERNESS. 

At dawn on the 5tk of May, tlie Army of the Potomac, 
closely succeeded by that of Burnside, had crossed the Rapidan 
River ; the Second Corps at Ely's, the Fifth and Sixth corps at 
Germania Ford. Having crossed the river, the first demon- 
stration of the enemy was an attempt to turn the right flank 
of Lee's array between the Orange Courthouse ]3ike and the 
river. 

The enemy's attack on the line of the turnpike was sustained 
by the division of General Edward Johnson of Ewell's corps. 
After a brief struggle the enemy succeeded in forcing back 
part of Jones's brigade, which had been formed across the turn- 
pike ; but the gap in our lines was speedily closed bj^ Stewart's 
brigade, and the Yankees driven back with the loss of some 
guns. In the mean time Gordon's gallant brigade of Georgians 
crushed tlirough the enemy's first lines, and driving furiously 
on, struck back the Yankee front in confusion upon its sup- 
ports. Another advance of the enemy upon Johnson's left 
flank was gallantly repulsed by Pegram's Virginians and 
Hays's Louisianians ; and the day's woi'k on the left witnessed 
the Confederates still holding their advanced lines. 

Hill had been ordered to march from Lee's left, and with 
Heth's division in advance had moved along the plank-road 
in a direction somewhat parallel with the turnpike, eventually 
eflfecting a junction with Gordon's brigade, on Ewell's extreme 
right. The line of battle, thus completed, presented a front of 
six miles. 

About 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the attack on Ewell having 

2 



18 THE LAST TEAK OF THE WAE. 

been repulsed, tlie enemy commenced a more decided demon- 
stration in front of Hill. Heth's division bore at first the whole 
brunt of the attack, but about four o'clock Wilcox's division 
was moved up from Ewell's right. For more than three hours 
tlie dreadful conflict continued, the enemy, attempting to force 
his way rather by constant pressure than by dashing enterprise. 
Never was a more gallant spectacle than these two divisions 
of Confederates holding at bay the Yankee onslaught from 
three o'clock until half-past seven, firm and unbroken in all 
that long and dreadful monotony of conflict. ISTight closed 
upon the Confederate line in the position it had originally 
taken. That the day was an unsuccessful one for the Yankees 
even their own accounts did not hesitate to admit. " No cheer 
of victory," says a Northern correspondent, " swelled through 
the Wilderness that night." 

During the day Hancock, Second Corps, had come up, and 
the Federal forces were concentrated. On the morning of the 
6th their lines were consolidated and freshly posted ; the three 
corps sustaining their respective positions — Warren in the 
centre, Sedgwick on the right, and Hancock on the left. 
I The attack was made by the Confederates, Hill and Long- 
street's corps attacking both of Hancock's flanks with such 
fury that the whole line of command thus assaulted was broken 
in several places. The efibrt, however, of the Confederates to 
pierce the enemy's centre was stayed, the Yankees having se- 
cured their line of battle behind their intrenchments. 

But with the expiration of the day was to occur a thrilling 
and critical conjuncture. Just at dusk (the Confederates' fa- 
vorite hour of battle) a column of Lee's army attacked the en- 
emy's left, captured Seymour and a large portion of his bri- 
gade, and excited a panic which put Grant's whole army on 
the verge of irretrievable rout. Unfortunately, the Confed- 
edrates had no idea of the extent of their success, and could 
not imagine how fraught with vital issue were those few mo- 
ments of encounter. The Yankee supply-trains were thought 
to be immediately threatened, and artillery was posted to bear 
upon the Confederate advance in that direction. But the Con- 
federates did not press their advantage. As it was. Generals 
Shaler and Seymour, with the greater -part of their commands, 
were taken prisoners. 



THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAB. 19 

Such had been the two days' battle of the "Wilderness — a 
marked success for the Confederates, disputed by the Northern 
newspapers, of course, but manifest in the face of the facts. 
The enemy confessed to a loss of twelve thousand.* The im- 
mediate consequence of these engagements was, that Grant, 
being clearly out-generalled in his first design of reaching Lee's 
rear and compelling him to fight a battle with his communica- 
tions cut oflf, which would be decisive of the campaign, was 
forced to change his plans, and with it his position ; falling 
back to his intrenched line, between the "Wilderness and Trigs's 
Mill, nearly coincident with the Brock road, leading from the 
Wilderness to Spottsylvania Courthouse. 

On the 7th, with some desultory fighting, Grant continued 
his movement towards Fredericksburg, with the evident view 
of attempting the Fredericksburg road to Richmond. It was 
in consequence of this change of front that General Lee took 
up a new line on the Po. It will amuse the candid reader to 
find how this movement was interpreted by the mendacious 
press of the North ; for in the newspapers of New York and 
Boston it was entitled, in flaming capitals, " A Waterloo De- 
feat of the Confederates," " The Retreat of Lee to Richmond," 
&c. For a few days the North was vocal with exultation, and 
for the hundredth time it had the rebellion " in a corner," to 
be conveniently strangled. But this imagination of easy 
conquest was to be dissipated as the many that had pre- 
ceded it. 



* A correspondent of the London Herald, wlio witnessed the two days' battle, 
writes : " The results to the enemy in some parts of the field cannot be described 
by any word less forcible than massacre. Eleven hundred and twenty-five 
Federal dead were buried in front of Ewell's line, lying to the left of the turn- 
pike. Five hundred more were buried on the right of that road ; and, in ad- 
dition to about one hundred dead officers, whose bodies must have been re- 
moved, the number of corpses lying on the field, within range of the enemy's 
sharpshooters, is estimated at fully three hundred. The Federal killed in the 
struggle on the right may, therefore, be declared positively to number as many 
as two thousand. I have no data on which to estimate the breadth of the 
slaughter in the fierce conflicts of the right ; but from the stubbornness and 
volume of these, feel quite confident that they must have added to the slain 
as awful an account as that rendered in front of Ewell. With three thousand 
prisoners and four thousand dead, the usual proportion of six or seven to one 
for'the wounded, would show that the losses of Grant in the battle of the Wil- 
derness cannot have been less than thirty thousand men." 



20 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 



THE BATTLES OF SPOTTSYAVANIA COTJRTHOUSE. 

On the 8th of May two engagements were fought at Spott- 
sylvania Courthouse, between Longstreet's corps, under An- 
derson (General Longstreet having been wounded in the battle 
of the 6th) and the Fifth Corps, under "Warren, supported by 
cavalry. The enemy was repulsed, with heavy loss, in both 
instances. 

On the 9th, which was marked by some skirmishing, General 
John Sedgwick, one of the most valuable corps commanders in 
the Yankee army, was killed, probably by a stray bullet. He 
had just been bantering liis men about dodging and ducking 
their heads at the whistle of Confederate bullets in the distance. 
" Why," said he, " they couldn't hit an elephant at this dis- 
tance." The next moment a ball entered his face, just below 
the left eye, and pierced his brain, causing instant death. 

On Thursday, the 17th of May, occurred what may be en- 
titled as the great battle of Spottsylvania Courthouse. The 
enemy had planned an attack on what was supposed to be a 
vital section of the Confederates, a salient angle of earthworks 
held by Johnson's division of Ewell's corps. The storming 
column advanced silently, and without firing a shot, up to the 
angle of the breastM^orks, over which they rushed, taking the 
forces within in flank, surrounding them, capturing nearly the 
entire division of Johnson's, with its commander, and also a 
brigade or two of other troops, Brigadier-General George H. 
Stuart in command. 

But the surprise was only momentary. One of the most 
thrilling scenes of the war was to occur. In a moment w-lien 
all was excitement, and when it could be easily seen that un- 
less the Confederates could check the enemy's advance, the 
consequence would be disastrous in the extreme, General Lee 
rode forward in front of the Confederate line, his position be- 
ing opposite at the time to the colors of the Forty-ninth regi- 
ment of Pegram's brigade. Not a word did he say. He 
simply took ofi" his hat. " As he sat on his charger," says 
a near eyewitness of him, " I never saw a man look so noble 
or witnessed a spectacle so impressive." 

At this interesting moment General Gordon, spurring his 



THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR, 21 

foaming cliarger to the front, seized the reins of General Lee's 
horse, and turning him around, said, " General, these are Vir- 
ginians ! These men have never failed ! They never will ! 
Will you, boys?" Loud cries of "ISTo, no!" "General Lee 
to the rear!" "Go back!" "Go back!" " General Lee to 
the rear ! " burst from along the lines ; and as one led the 
general's horse to the rear. General Gordon gave the com- 
mand, " Forward, charge !" And with a shout and yell the 
brigades dashed on, through bog and swamp, and briers and 
undergrowth, to tlie breastworks. For long hours a battle 
raged over the intrenchments, the intense fury, heroism, and 
horror of which it is impossible to describe. From dawh to 
dusk the roar of guns was ceaseless ; a tempest of shell shrieked 
tlu'ough the forest and ploughed the field. Ewell's corps held 
the critical angle with a courage that nothing could subdue. 
General Hill moved down from the right, joined Ewell, and 
tlirew his divisions into the struggle. Longstreet came on from 
the extreme left of the Confederate line. Column after column 
of the enemy was stricken down, or repulsed and sent back like 
a broken wave. The ground in front of the Confederate lines 
was piled with his slain. 

The works which the Yankees had captured in the morning 
contained an angle in the form of an A, with the point towards 
the enemy. At the close of the day the enemy maintained 
possession of about three hundred yards of our works in that 
quarter. The loss in Johnson's division was probabl}'' between 
3,000 and 3,500, including over 2,000 prisoners. Our whole 
loss, during the day, amounted to between six and seven thou- 
sand. The enemy stated their loss at from 18,000 to 25,000. 
They captured twenty pieces of artillery. This was their 
" great victory," 

The sixth day of heavy fighting had been ended. "It 
would," says an intelligent critic of this period, " not be im- 
possible to match the results of any one day's battle with 
stories from the wars of the old world; but never, we should 
think, in the history of man were five such battles as these 
compressed into six days." Grant had been foiled ; but his 
obstinacy was apparently untouched, and the fierce and brutal 
consumption of human life, another element of his generalship, 
and which had already obtained for him with his soldiers the 



22 THE LAST YEAE OF THE WAE. 

soubriquet of " the bntclier," was still to continue. He tele- 
graphed to "Washington : " I propose to fight it out on this 
line, if it takes all summer." 

But we must turn for a few moments from this dominant 
field of action and interest to notice other movements, which 
were 'parts of Grant's combination, and of the great military 
drama in Virginia. 

While Grant was engaged on the Rapidan, a cavalry expe- 
dition of the enemy, commanded by General Sheridan, moved 
around Lee's right flank to the North Anna River ; committed 
some damage at Beaver Dam ; moved thence to the South 
Anna and Ashland Station, where the railroad was destroyed ; 
and finally found its way to the James at Turkey Island, 
where it joined the forces of Butler. The damage inflicted by 
this raid was not very considerable ; but it was the occasion 
of a severe fight, on the 10th of May, at Yellow Tavern, on the 
road to Richmond, where Sheridan encountered a Confederate 
cavalry force, in which engagement was lost the valuable life 
of General J. E. B. Stuart, the brilliant cavalry commander, 
who had so long made Virginia the threatre of his daring and 
chivalric exploits. 

The column of Butler, the important correspondent to 
Grant's movement, intended to operate against Richmond on 
the south side, had raised the hopes of the JSTorth merely to 
dash them by a failure decisive in its character, and ridiculous 
in all its circumstances. On the 5th of May, Butler proceeded 
with his fleet of gunboats and transports, and the Tenth and 
Eighteenth army corps, up the James River, landing at Wil- 
son's Wharf a regiment of Wild's negro troops, and two 
brigades of the same color at Fort Powhatan ; thence up to 
City Point, where Hinks's division was lauded ; and at Ber- 
muda Hundred, just below the mouth of the Appomattox, the 
entire army was disembarked. 

On the 7th, five brigades, under General Brooks, struck for 
the Petersburg and Richmond Railroad, and succeeded in 
destroying a bridge seven miles north of Petersburg. In the 
mean time, Butler, after intrenching himself, closed about the 
defences of Drury's Blufi". The Yankee general seemed con- 
fident that he could by a little fighting, in conjunction with 
the powerful flotilla upon the James, easily overcome the main 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 23 

barrier to his approach to the rear of the Confederate capital, 
presented in the defences of Drury's Bhiff. It was ah-eady 
announced to the credulous public of the North that Butler 
had cut Beauregard's army in twain ; that he had carried two 
lines of the defences of Drury's Blufi"; and that he held the 
keys to the back-door of Richmond. 

On Monday, the 16th of May, General Beauregard fell upon 
the insolent enemy in a fog, drove Butler from his advanced 
positions back to his original earthworks, and inflicted upon 
him a loss of several thousand men in killed, wounded, and 
captured. He had fallen upon the right of the Yankee line 
of battle with the force of an avalanche, completely crushing 
it backward and turning Butler's flank. The action was de- 
cisive. JSTo result but that of victory could be expected in 
Richmond when Butler was the combatant. The Richmond 
Examiner designated the tight as that of " the Buzzard and 
the Falcon." The day's operations resulted in Butler's entire 
army being ordered to i-eturn from its advanced position, within 
ten miles of Richmond, to the line of defence known as Ber- 
muda Hundred, between the James and Appomattox rivers. 



THE ENEMY S OPERATIONS IN WESTERN VIRGINIA. 

While Butler had thus come to grief, the failure of Sigel, 
who threatened the Yalley of Virginia was no less complete. 

Grant had made an extraordinary combination in Virginia. 
His plan of campaign was clearly not limited to the capture 
of Richmond. He might capture it without capturing the 
government machinery and without overthrowing Lee's army. 
In such event further operations were necessary ; and these were 
already provided for in the ambitious and sweeping plan of 
the campaign. 

The movement of Sigel up the Shenandoah Valley towards 
Staunton was designed with the view, first, of taking posses- 
sion of the Virginia Central Railroad, and ultimately eft'ecting 
a lodgment upon the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad at 
Lynchburg. Averill was to move towards the same great 
railroad with a design of striking it at Salem. General Crook 
was to move with a strong force and large supplies from Charles- 



24 THE LASr YEAR OF THE WAK. 

town towards Dublin Depot; and a fourth movement — 
which, however, was not actively; developed until the period, 
some weeks later, of the second combination of forces in this 
part of Yirginia — was designed on the Yirginia side of the 
Big Sandy towards Abingdon on the same railroad. 

The invasion thus planned for Western Yirginia compre- 
hended a heavy aggregate of forces. There were the six thou- 
sand of Crook, which came from the Lower Kanawha. These 
last were joined by Averill, with twenty-five hundred cavalry, 
coming from JSTorthwest Yirginia ; and there was the army of 
Sigel, whose strength was variously estimated, but was not 
less than twelve thousand. The design was that these different 
corps should strike the Lynchburg and Tennessee and the 
Central railroads simultaneously at Abingdon, Wytheville, 
Dublin Depot, and Staunton, and should afterwards unite, 
west of Lynchburg, and march against that city. Grant was 
strongly impressed with the importance of this city. In sub- 
sequent attempts against it, his orders were that it should be 
taken and held at any loss and at all hazards. 

In pursuance of the plan of operations in Western Yirginia, 
at the very moment that Grant crossed the Rapidan it was 
announced that Sigel was in motion upon Staunton, Crook 
upon Dublin Depot, and Averill upon Wytheville, with de- 
sign, after destroying that town and the lead mines, to unite 
with Crook at Dublin for a march towards Lynchburg ; but no 
news came of a movement at that early day of Major-Gen eral 
Burbridge upon Abingdon and Saltville. The sequel proved 
that we were poorly prepared to meet this concerted assault. 
Breckinridge had been ordered away from Dublin in a hurry, 
witli all the troops he could collect at short notice, and sent 
down the Yalley to confront Sigel, leaving nothing but a few 
scattered troops, afterwards collected together by McCausland, 
to oppose Crook at Dublin. 

On the 15th of May, Sigel's column was encountered near 
Newmarket by General Breckinridge, who drove it across the 
Shenandoah, captured six pieces of artillery and nearly one 
thousand stand of small-arms, and inflicted upon it a heavy- 
loss, Sigel abandoning his hospitals and destroying the larger 
portion of his train. 

But while Breckinridge defeated Sigel, and drove him back 



THE LAST TEAK OF THE WAK. 25 

in dismay and rout, McCausland was left at Dublin with only 
1,500 men to resist Crook's 6,000. He fought bravely, how- 
ever, and so shattered Crook's army as to destroy his design of 
proceeding towards Lynchburg, and compel a retreat as fai- as 
Meadow BluflP, in Greenbrier, for the purpose of recruiting his 
disorganized army and repairing damages. Crook left several 
hundred prisoners and all his wounded, but succeeded, before 
leaving the region of the battle, in destroying the important 
bridge over New River. 

It so happened that the Confederates had a larger force at 
that time in the extreme Southwest than anywhere else on the 
line of the Lynchburg and Tennessee Kailroad. The fact was 
fortunate, for it enabled General W. E. Jones, then command- 
ing there, to spare General Morgan's command for services 
further east. Thus it happened that General Morgan, making 
a forced march from Saltville, arrived at Wytheville with his 
mounted men in time to save that town from Averill, and to 
completely defeat that boasted cavalry officer, with a heavy 
loss of killed, wounded, prisoners, and horses. This defeat was 
very important, for it prevented Averill from joining Crook 
before the battle at Dublin, and before that general had found 
it necessary to fall back to Meadow Bluff. Averill arrived in 
Dublin two days after Crook had gone. It was still further 
fortunate that General Morgan, at the same time that he 
marched from Saltville with his mounted men against Averill, 
at Wytheville, was able to send his dismounted men by the 
railroad to Dublin, which force arrived there just in time to 
take part with McCausland in the fight which sent Crook back 
to Meadow Bluff. 

These occurrences took place in the early part of May, si- 
multaneously with Grant's operations in Spottsylvania. Mor- 
gan's light at Wytheville, McCausland's at Dublin, and Breck- 
inridge's at Newmarket, all occurred about the same time with 
each other, and simultaneously with the great battles of the 
"Wilderness between Lee and Grant. 

We lefc Grant defeated in the action of the 12th in front of 
Spottsylvania Courthouse. On the lith he moved his lines 
by his left fiank, taking position nearer the Richmond and 
Fredericksburg railroad. On the 18th he attempted an assault 
on Swell's line, which was easily repulsed. It was admitted 



26 THE LAST TEAK OF THE WAR. 

bj the enemy that the object of this attack was to turn Lee's 
left flank, and that their line got no further than the abattis, 
when it was " ordered^'' back to its original position. 

A new movement was now undertaken by Grant — to pass 
his army from the line of tlie Po, down the valley of the Rap- 
pahannock. It thus became necessary for General Lee to evac- 
uate his strong position on the line of the Po ; and by an ad- 
mirable movement he had taken a new position between the 
North and South Anna, before Grant's army had arrived at the 
former stream. Having cut loose from Fredericksburg as a 
base and established depots on the lower Rappahannock, on 
the 21st Grant's forces occupied Milford Station and Bowling 
Green, and were moving on the well-known high roads to 
Richmond. But they were again intercepted ; for Lee had 
planted himself between Grant and Richmond, near Hanover 
Junction. 

On the 23d and on the 25th Grant made attempts on the 
Confederate lines, which were repulsed, and left him to the 
last alternative. Another flanking operation remained for 
him, by which he swung his army from the North Anna 
around and across the Pamunkey. On the 27th, Hanovertown 
was reported to be occupied by the Yankee advance under 
General Sheridan ; and on the 28th Grant's entire army was 
across the Pamunkey. 

In the mean time. General Lee also reformed his line of bat- 
tle, north and south, directly in front of the Virginia Central 
Railroad, and extending from Atlee's Station south to Shady 
Grove, ten miles north of Richmond. In this position he cov- 
ered both the Virginia Central and the Fredericksburg and 
Richmond railroads, as well as all the roads leading to Rich- 
mond, west of and including the Mechanicsville j^ike. 

The favorite tactics of Grant appear to have been to develop 
tlie left flank ; and by this characteristic manoeuvre he moved 
down the Hanover Courthouse road, and on the first day of 
June took a position near Cold Harbor. 

Grant was now within a few miles of Richmond. The vul- 
gar mind of the North readily seized upon the cheap circum- 
stance of his proximity in miles to the Confederate capital, and 
exclaimed its triumph. ■ The capture of Richmond was ac- 
counted as an event of the next week. The Yankee periodi- 



THE LAST TEAK OF THE "WAR. 27 

cals were adorned with all those illustrations which brutal 
triumph could suggest ; — Grant drubbing Lee across his knee ; 
the genius of Yankee Liberty holding aloft an impersonation of 
the Southern Confederacy by the seat of the breeches, marked 
" Richmond ;" Jefferson Davis playing his last card, ornamented 
with a crown of death's heads, and with his legs well girt with 
snakes ; and a hundred other caricatures alike characteristic of 
the vulgar thought and fiendish temper of the Yankee. To 
such foolish extremity did this premature celebration go, that 
a meeting was called in New York to render the thanks of the 
nation to Grant, and twenty-five thousand persons completed 
the hasty apotheosis. 

But for the candid and intelligent, the situation of Grant 
was one of sinister import to him, implied much of disaster, 
and was actually a consequence of his repeated disappointments. 
The true theory of it was defeat, not victory. He did nothing 
more than hold the same ground as that occupied by General 
McClellan in his first peninsular campaign. This position, had 
he come by another route, a day's sail from Washington, he 
could have occupied without the loss of a single man. But he 
had occupied it by a devious route ; with a loss variously esti- 
mated at from sixty to ninety thousand men ; with the con- 
sumption of most of his veteran troops, whom he had put in 
front ; with the disconcert and failure of those parts of tlie 
drama which Butler and Sigel were to enact ; and witli that 
demoralization which must unavoidably obtain in an army put 
to the test of repeated defeats and forced marches. 

What was represented by the enemy as the retreat of Gen- 
eral Lee's army to Richmond was simply its movement from 
a position which its adversary had abandoned, to place itself 
full before him across the new road on which he had deter- 
mined to travel. In this sense, it was Grant who was pursued. 
He had set out to accomplish Mr. Lincoln's plan of an overland 
march upon Richmond. Mr. Lincoln's scheme, as detailed by 
himself in his famous letter to General McClellan, was to 
march by the way of the Manassas Railroad. The first move- 
ment of General Grant was to give up that route, and fall back 
upon the line by which Generals Burnside and Hooker at- 
tempted to reach the Confederate capital — that is, the Freder- 
icksburg and Richmond line. But, repulsed at Spottsylvania, 



28 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR, 

this route proved untenable, and General Grant was forced 
east and south, and adopted a new base at Port Royal and 
Tappahannock, on the Rappahannock River, which conformed 
in a measure to General McCIellan's first plan of a march upon 
Richmond by way of Urbana. The next change Grant was 
compelled to make was, after finding how strong the Confed- 
erates were, as posted on the South Anna, to cross'the Pamun- 
key and make his base at the White Plouse, bearing thereafter 
still further east and south to the precise ground of McCIellan's 
operations. 

The significance of all these movements was, that Grant had 
utterly failed in his design of defeating Lee's army far from 
its base, and pushing the fragments before him down to Rich- 
mond, and had been forced to cover up his failure by adopting 
the derided scheme of McClellan. The event of the 12th of 
May at Spottsylvania Courthouse had settled the question 
whether he could beat Lee in the field and put him in a dis- 
astrous retreat. Unable to remove the obstacle on the thresh- 
old of his proposed campaign, nothing was left but to abandon 
it. Grant makes his way down the valley of the Rappahan- 
nock ; turns aside to Hanover Junction, to find a repetition of 
Spottsylvania Courthouse ; deflects to the head-waters of the 
York ; and at last, by a monstrous circuit, reaches a point 
where he might have landed on the 1st of May, without loss 
or opposition. We may appreciate the amount of gaseous non- 
sense and truculent blackguardism of Yankee journals, when 
we find them declaring that these movements were a foot-race 
for Richmond, that Grant was across the last ditch, and that 
the end of the rebellion was immediately at hand. 



CHAPTER II. 

Grant essays the passage of the Chickahominy, — Battle of Cold Harbor. — A bril- 
liant and extraordinary victory for tiie Confederates. — Grant's stock of expedients. 
— He decides to move to tlie south side of the James. — Operations in Western 
Virginia. — Shocking improvidence of tlie Richmond authorities. — Hunter cap- 
tures Staunton. — Death of General Jones. — Grant's new combination. — Hunter's 
part. — Sheridan's part. — The Battles of Petersburg. — Butler attempts to steal 
a march upon "the Cockade City." — Engagements of the 16th, I7th, and 18th of 
June. — Port Walthal Junction. — Defeat of Sheridan at Trevillian Station. — Defeat 
of Hunter near Lyncliburg. — Morgan draws Burbridge into Kentucky. — Two af- 
fairs on the Petersburg and Weldon Eailroad. — The Great Mine Explosion. — A 
scene of infernal horror. — Yankee comments on Grant's failures. — Great de- 
pression in tlie North. — Mr. Chase's declarations. — General Lee's sense of success. 
— His singular behavior. — The Sinking of the Privateer Alabama. — A Yan- 
kee trick of concealed armor. — The privateer service of the Confederates. — In- 
teresting statistics. 

We return to the events on the Richmond lines. The posi- 
tion occupied by Grant, on Wednesday, June 1st, had been 
obtained after some fighting, and, bj the enemy's own admis- 
sion, had cost him two thousand men in killed and wounded. An 
important and critical struggle was now to ensue. Grant had 
secured a position, the importance of which was that it was the 
point of convergence of all the roads radiating, wliether to 
Richmond, his objective point, or to White House, his base 
of supplies. He was now to essay the passage of the Chicka- 
hominy, and we were to have another decisive battle of Cold 
Harbor. 



THE BATTLE OF COLD HAKBOK. 

There is good evidence that Grant's intention was to make 
it the decisive battle of the campaign. The movements of the 
preceding days, culminating in the possession of Cold Harbor 
— an important strategic point — had drawn the enemy's lines 
close in front of the Chickahominy, and reduced the military 
problem to the forcing of the passage of that river — a problem 
which, if solved in Grant's favor, would decide whether Rich- 
mond could be carried by a coup de main^ if a decisive victory 



30 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

should attend his arms, or, whether he should betake himself 
to siege operations or some other recourse. 

Early on the morning of Friday, June 3d, the assault was 
made, Hancock commanding the left of the Yankee line of 
battle, and leading the attack. The first Confederate line was 
held by Breckinridge's troops, and was carried. The reverse 
was but momentary, for the troops of Milligan's brigade, and 
the Maryland battalion, soon dashed forward to retrieve- the 
honors which the Yankees had snatched. 

This engagement was on the right ; Breckinridge's division, 
with Field's, constituting a part of Longstreet's corps. On the 
left. General Early engaged the enemy. On every part of the 
line the enemy was repulsed by the quick and decisive blows 
of the Confederates. Hancock's corps, the only portion of the 
Yankee army that had come in contact with the Confederate 
works, had been hurled back in a storm of fire ; the Sixth 
Corps had not been able to get up further than within two 
■hundred and fifty yards of the main works ; while Warren and 
Burnside, on the enemy's right and right centre, were stag- 
gered on the lines of' our rifle-pits. The decisive work of the 
day was done in a few minutes. Never were there such signal 
strokes of valor, such dispatch of victory. It was stated in the 
accounts of the Confederates, that fourteen distinct assaults of 
the enemy were repnlsed, and that his loss was from six to 
seven thousand.* No wonder that the insolent assurance of 
the capture of Richmond was displaced in the Yankee news- 
papers by the ominous calculation, that Grant could not af- 
ford many such experiments on the intrenched line of the 
Chickahominy, and would have to make some other resort to 
victory. 

The battle of Cold Harbor was sufficient to dispel the delu- 
sion of weakness and demoralization in Lee's army ; for this 
derided army, almost in the time it takes to tell the story, had 



* The lowest estimate of their own loss, in the Yankee newspapers, was five 
thousand ; and the report of the adjutant-general at Washington stated 
the loss in three days' operations on the Chickahominy at seven thousand 
five hundred. Yet Grant dispatched to Washington : " Our loss was not se- 
vere, nor do I suppose the enemy to have lost heavily. We captured over 
throe hundred prisoners, mostly from Breckinridge." 



THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAE. 31 

repulsed at every point the most determined assault of the 
enemy, and, in a few brief moments of a single morning, had 
achieved an unbroken circuit of victories. Grant and his 
friends were alike dismayed. The latter insisted that he should 
have half a million more of men to accomplish his work. 
" "We should," said a Boston paper, " have a vigorous and 
overwhelming war, or else peace without further effusion of 
blood." A certain portion of the Yankee press maintained the 
unbroken lie, and told the story of an uninterruj)ted series of 
victories. 

An object of most curious and constant interest in the war 
was the rivalry of the different routes to Richmond. McClel- 
lan had chosen the peninsular approach, while Mr. Lincoln 
dissented in favor of an advance from the Lower Rappahan- 
nock ; Burnside had chosen Fredericksburg as his base ; 
Hooker had acted on the same choice. Meade had selected 
the Rapidan, as Pope had done before him. Grant came to 
Iiis command, unembarrassed and untrammelled by the prece- 
dents and comments of others. He had hunted up the roads 
to Richmond, through the Wilderness and Spottsylvania 
Court-house, and avowed his unchangeable purpose to adhere 
to that as his true line. He had now wandered around to 
McClellan's old base. But the battle of July 3d decided that 
Richmond could no longer be approached with advantage 
from the north, and the disconcerted, shifting commander, 
with his stock of expedients well-nigh exhausted, found noth- 
ing now left for him but to transfer his entire army to the 
south side of the James River.* 



* A Ricliinond paper (the DispatcTi) made the following estimate of Grant's 
enormous losses up to the time of crossing the James ; still leaving him, how- 
ever, a tremendous force in hand, compared with Lee's numbers: "Grant had 
had first his own original army, 150,000 ; second, 25,000 veteran reinforce- 
ments ; third, 40,000 hundred days' men ; fourth, 20,000 from Butler — total, 
225,000 men, under his own eye. Of these, he had lost 125,000 before he left 
Cold Harbor. He crossed the river with 110,000 men, and there united his 
operations with those of Butler, who had with him about 20,000 men, besides 
those he had sent to Grant." 



33 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 



OPERATIONS IN WESTERN VIRGINIA. 

We have already referred to the failure in May of the opera- 
tions in Western Yirginia. Tliey were to be enlarged by the 
augmentation of the Yankee forces by several thousand troops, 
drawn from the extreme ISTorth western States, and by the 
appointment of General Hunter, an officer of higher rank, to 
command — the same Hunter, by the by, who inaugurated 
negro enlistments and miscegenation in the department of 
Beaufort, South Carolina, as early as the first winter of the 
war. 

This second combination in "Western Yirginia was imposing 
enough. Crook and Averill were refitting and preparing at 
Meadow Blufi' for an advance on Staunton and Lynchburg; 
Hunter was organizing at Winchester heavy reinforcements 
for a second advance upon Lynchburg by way of Staunton ; 
and Burbridge, in Kentucky, was getting ready to descend 
upon extreme Southwestern Yirginia, so as to prevent any 
advance from that direction upon the rear of the combined 
armies about to move on Lynchburg. 

It is almost incredible how inadequate the preparations of 
the Confederates were to meet these formidable enterprises of 
the enemy. Breckinridge, with the only army that could be 
called such, which we had west of the Blue Eidge, was ordered 
elsewhere, leaving nothing to confront some tvventj^-seveu 
thousand troops but a few small brigades of inferior cavalry, 
about two regiments of infantry, and a small brigade 
(Yaughan's) of dismounted troops acting as infantry. To 
supply the place of Breckinridge, McCausland's little force, 
from Dublin, was sent to the front of Staunton, and General 
William E. Jones was ordered to take all the troops he could 
move from Southwestern Yirginia to the same position in the 
lower valley. Accordingly, General Jones not only got to- 
gether all the infantry west of the New Eiver, but dismounted 
Yaughan's brigade of cavalry also, and took all to Staunton, 
leaving nothing in the extreme southwest but a few disjointed 
bodies of cavalry and Morgan's command to meet Burbridge, 
coming in from Kentucky. 



THE LAST YEAK OF THE WAR. 33 

On the 5tli of June, Hunter had obtained a success at Pied- 
mont, in Western Virginia, and had effected the capture of 
Staunton ; the saddest circumstance of which affair was the 
loss of General Jones, one of the most distinguished cavalry 
commanders of the Confederacy.* 

After occupying Staunton. Hunter had formed a junction 
with the combined forces of Crook and Averill, and on the 
13th of June was reported to be moving with his whole com- 
mand against Lynchburg. On the 7th, Sheridan had crossed 
the Pamuiikey, and was moving eastward in the direction of 
the Gordonsville Railroad. The main movement of the new 
combination — tiiat of Grant across the James — commenced 
Sunday night the 12th of June. 

The first plan of the enemy had comprehended the advance 
of Sigel down the Slienandoah, and the capture of Petei'sburg, 
if nothing more, by Butler, while General Grant engaged Lee's 
army betv>^een the Rapidan and Richmond. That plan having 
signally failed, the second comprised the capture of Lj-nchburg 
by Hunter, of Gordonsville and Charlottesville by Sheridan, 
and of Petersburg by Meade. It was thus hoped to isolate 
the Confederate capital by cutting off its communications on 
every side. 

It was, perhaps, not Grant's design to cross the river until 
he had made some attempt on the Central and ISTew Market 
roads, leading into Richmond from the direction of Malvern 



* A correspondent thus writes of tliis oflScer — whose eccentricities were 
almost as well-known to Virginians as those of Stonewall Jackson: "General 
Jones was a captain in the United States Army, ranking Stuart. A small, thin, 
black-eyed and whiskered man, he dressed very plainly, bordering on shabbi- 
ness ; never shaved, never in uniform, no insignia of office. He had a fine, 
squeaking voice; was misanthropic, despising ^mrade and every man that 
indulged in it ; never courting any man's favor ; never, perhaps, speaking to a 
congressman or the President, since the war commenced ; fearing no man — 
reverencing no man ; speaking freely, if not curtly, to and of everybody. He was 
a widower. When stationed in Texas he lost his ^\-ife. an accomplished lady, by 
shipwreck in Galveston Bay ; since which he has never married again, and 
has seemed, if not to wish for death, at least to hold his life very cheaply. Ho 
was cool in a fight, and the bravest of the brave. With hat in hand, he was 
cheering liis men when he lell, pierced through his head by a minnie ball. 
The enemy refused his body. Some citizens buried him in a neat coffin, and 
marked the spot." 

3 



34 THE LAST YKAK OF THR WAR. 

Hill. On the 13th of June he caused a reconnoissance in force 
to be made from the Long Bridge towards the Quaker road, 
and in an affair, near the intersection of this road with the 
Charles City road, was repulsed, and drew off his force, well 
satisfied that the Confederates held, with heavy forces, all the 
roads by which Richmond could be reached from the southeast. 
The Eighteenth Yankee corps had proceeded by water to 
Bermuda Hundred. The remaining corps had crossed the 
Chickahominy at James Bridge and Long Bridge ; and after 
the reconnoissance of the 13th, proceeded down the James, and 
crossed it in the neighborhood of City Point. 



THE BATTLES OF PETERSBUEG. 

Petersburg had already sustained a considerable attack of 
the enemy. An expedition from Butler's lines had essayed its 
capture on the 9th of June. 

Approaching with nine regiments of infantry and cavalry, 
and at least four pieces of artillery, the enemy searched our 
lines a distance of nearly six miles. Hood's and Battles' bat- 
talions, the Forty-sixth Virginia, one company of the Twenty- 
third South Carolina, with Sturdevant's battery, and a few 
guns in position, and Talliaferro's cavalry, kept them at bay. 
The Yankees were twice repulsed, but succeeded, at last, in 
penetrating a gap in our line ; when reinforcements coming up 
drove back the insolent foe from approaches which their foot- 
steps for the first time polluted. 

The fortunate issue of this first attack on Petersburg encour- 
aged the raw troops and militia who had been put under arms 
for the defence of " the Cockade City." General Wise ad- 
dressed the troops of his command in a memorable and thrill- 
ing order. " Petersburg," said he, " is to be, and shall be, de- 
fended on her outer walls, on her inner lines, at her corporation 
bounds, in every street, and around every temple of God and 
altar of man." 

Tiie resolution of the gallant city — with its defences rein- 
forced by the fortunate Beauregard — was now to be put to a 
much more severe test, for it was to encounter the shock of the 
bulk of Grant's army. 



THE LAST TEAK OF THE WAR. 35 

'' Smith's corps, having disembarked at Bermuda Hundred on 
the 14th, moved rapidly upon Petersburg, and made an assault 
on the batteries covering the approaches to the city on the 
northeast. Having got possession of this line of works, held 
principally by Confederate militia, Smith waited the coming 
up of the Second Corps. 

On the evening of the 16th an attack was ordered on the 
Confederate line of works in front of Petersburg, Smith's corps 
being on the right, on the Petersburg and City Point road, 
west of the railroad, the Second Corps in the centre, and Burn- 
side on the left, reaching the Prince George Courthouse road. 
The assault was not only repulsed at every point, but our 
troops, assuming the aggressive, drove the Yankees from their 
breastworks at Howlett's House, captured some of their guns, 
and opened upon them an enfilading fire, under which they fled 
precipitately. 

The most furious assault of the enemy had been made on 
General Hoke's front, whose division occupied a position facing 
batteries from Nine to Twelve inclusive. Three different 
charges were repulsed by these heroic troops. In the final re- 
pulse of the enemy, a large portion of a Yankee brigade, being 
exposed to an enfilading artillery fire fVom our guns, sought 
shelter in a ravine, and surrendered to the Sixty-fourth Georgia 
regiment. 

On Friday, June 17th, fighting was renewed without result. 
The next day it was resolved by the enemy to make an assault 
along the whole line for the purpose of carrying the town. It 
was thus that the action of the 18th was designed to be decisive 
of operations in the present position. 

Three diff'erent assaults were made by the enemy during the 
day — at four in the morning, at noon, and at four in the after- 
noon. Each one was repulsed. Hancock and Burnside in the 
centre suffered severely. 

After severe losses on the part of all the Yankee corps, night 
found the Confederates still in possession of their works cover- 
ing Petersburg. 

The disaster of this day left Grant without hope of making 
any impression on the works in his front, and placed him under 
the necessity of yet another change of operations. The series 
of engagements before Petersburg had cost him at least teu 



36 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAK. 

thousand men in killed and wounded, and had culminated in 
another decisive defeat. 

The misfortune of the enemy appeared, indeed, to be over- 
whelming. Pickett's division had given him another lesson at 
Port Walthal Junction. It was here the heroes of Gettysburg 
repulsed a force under Gillmore engaged in destroying the rail- 
road, took two lines of his breastworks, and put him to disas- 
trous flight. 

Nor was there any compensation to be found in the auxiliary 
parts of Grant's second grand combination. Sheridan had 
failed to perform his part. lie was intercepted by Hampton's 
cavalry at Trevillian Station on the Gordonsville road, defeated 
in an engagement on the 10th, and compelled to withdraw his 
command across the North Anna. Hunter had come to similar 
grief, and his repulse at Lynchburg involved consequences of 
the gravest disaster to the enemy. 

On the 18th of June, Hunter made an attack upon Lynch- 
burg from the south side, which was repulsed by troops that 
had arrived from General Lee's lines. The next day, more re- 
inforcements having come up, preparations were made to attack 
the enemy, when he retreated in confusion. The Confederates 
took thirteen of his guns, pursued him to Salem, and forced him 
to a line of retreat into the mountains of Western Virginia. The 
attempt of the Yankees to whitewash the infamous and cow- 
ardly denouement was more than usually refreshing. Hunter 
officially announced that his expedition had been " extremely 
successful ;" that he had left Lynchburg because " his ammu- 
nition was running short ;" and that as to the singular line he 
had taken up, he was now " ready for a move in any di- 
rection." 

In the mean time General Morgan had done his part in 
breaking up the enemy's combination in Western Yirginia. 
General Jones being ordered from the extreme Southwest, to- 
geiher with all the troops he could transport, to Staunton at 
the very time that Southwest Yirginia was about to be in- 
vaded by Burbridge, General Morgan held a brief and hasty 
conference with him on the eve of his departure, in which it 
was agreed by both generals that it would be in vain to meet 
Burbridge in front, and that, as the enemy had much more to 
lose in Kentucky than we had in Yirginia, the only chance of 



THE LAST YEAK OF THE WAR. 37 

saving the Southwest was by Morgan's dashing boldly into the 
heart of Kentucky, and in that way drawing Burbridge away. 
This plan was carried into effect, and completely succeeded. 
Burbridge was lured back, his army scattered and crippled, 
Southwest Virginia saved for the time, and the discomfited 
general set to reorganizing his command, — a task which occu- 
pied him until the necessities of General Sherman rendered all 
available reinforcements from Kentucky needful at Chattanooga. 

These latter movements all took place in the first part of 
June, after the date of the battle of Cold Harbor. They were 
designed by Grant as auxiliary to his own movement upon 
Petersburg, and were a material part of the comprehensive 
plan he had formed for completely isolating Richmond. When 
these important movements west of the Blue Ridge, which had 
theii' focus at Lynchburg, are considered in connection with 
Sheridan's great raid in the same central direction, and with 
the enterprises of "Wilson and Kautz against the Danville and 
Weldon railroads, all of them auxiliary to Grant's attempt 
upon Petersburg, we are obliged to accord to the enemy's plan 
of campaign for June, the merit of unusual grasp and ability. 
Thanks to the miracles of Providence wrought for us on the 
west of the Blue Ridge, and to the valor of our soldiers and 
skill of our generals, so eminently displayed on the east, these 
formidable movements, to encircle and overwhelm the capital 
of the Confederacy and the State of Virginia, had completely 
failed. 

And yet the measure of misfortune in Grant's distracted 
campaign appeared to be not yet full. On the 22d of June he 
made a movement on his left to get possession of the Weldon 
Railroad, but found the Confederates had extended their right 
to meet him. While the Second and the Sixth corps of Grant's 
army were attempting to communicate in this movement, the 
Confederates, under General Anderson, pierced the centre, 
captured a battery of four guns, and took prisoners one entire 
brigade. General Pearce's, and part of another. 

Another attempt or raid on the railroad, by Wilson's and 
Kautz's divisions of cavalry, terminated in disaster. In the 
neighborhood of Spottswood River, twenty-five miles south 
of Petersburg, on the 28th, the expedition was attacked, cut in 
two, the greater part of its artillery abandoned, and its wagon- 



38 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

trains left in the hands of the Confederates, The enemy had 
been encountered by Hampton's cavalry, and Finnegan's and 
Mahone's infantry brigades ; and the results of the various 
conflicts were enumerated as one thousand prisoners, thirteen 
pieces of artillery, thirty wagons and ambulances, and many 
small-arms. 

THE GREAT MINE EXPLOSION. 

But some weeks later another remarkable and desperate 
attempt was to be made by Grant upon Petersburg, the arti- 
fice and elaboration of which were among the greatest curiosi- 
ties of his campaign. A citizen of Petersburg had, early in 
July, printed what was supposed to be a crazy letter, stating 
that he had certain information, at which General Lee would 
probably laugh, and which he preferred to communicate to 
the more credulous quarter of the newspapers, to the effect 
that Grant designed to mine the city of Petersburg, blow it 
into the air, and thus accomplish its destruction. 

Although the scheme of the Yankees was not quite so ex- 
tensive, it was elaborate and formidable enough. For six weeks 
Grant had been preparing a mine on the slopes of Cemetery 
Hill, with the view of opening the way to an assault on the 
second line of works that crowned its crest. From day to day, 
by the aid of the shovel and the pick, the Yankee lines 
had been insidiously advanced by zigzags and covered ways, 
until the outlying pickets of both armies scarcely averaged 
500 yards' distance between them. Along portions of the line, 
the interval between the rifle-pits was scarcely 150 yards. 
The crest of Cemetery Hill frowning with guns was not more 
than 800 yards distant from the advanced works of the 
Yankees, and its gently sloping sides were welted with long 
rows of earthworks, pitted with redoubts and redans, and 
ridged with serried salients and curtains, and other skilful 
defences. 

To draw ofi" the attention of the Confederates from his real 
business. Grant had ordered the Second corps to cross to the 
north side of the James ; and at the same time an empty train 
of four hundred wagons crossed the Appomattox in view of 
the Confederate signal stations. 



THE LAST TEAK OF THE WAE, 39 

It was appointed tliat the mine, which contained eight tons 
of powder, shonld be exploded at three o'clock in the morning 
of the 30th July, and that therenpon Burnside, who com- 
manded the Yankee centre, should pierce the works in front of 
him. Simultaneously with the advance of the infantry, every 
piece of siege artillery posted along the line was ordered to 
open upon the Confederates ; and all the field artillery which 
could be got into position, after the opening of the battle, was 
to advance, as opportunity offered, and bring their batteries 
into play. It was naturally expected that the shock of tlie ex- 
plosion, and of the suddenness of this awful fire, would have a 
demoralizing effect, and so make the way of the infantry easier. 

The mine was not exploded until half-past four o'clock in the 
morning. The earth was rent along the entire course of the ex- 
cavation, exhibiting a yawning chasm ; in some places it heaved 
slowly and majestically to the surface; in others, where the 
charge in the burrow was heaviest, immense masses of dull, 
red earth were thrown high in air, and human forms, and gun- 
carriages, and small-arms, might be seen shooting up in this 
fountain of horror. 

But the explosion had only demolished a six-gun battery. 
It was followed immediately by such a thunder of artillery as 
had seldom been heard before. Ninety-five pieces niched in 
every hill-side, commanding the position of the Confederates, 
belched out their sheets of flame and milk-white smoke, while 
screeching and howling shell sped forward in their work of 
destruction. But the Confederates were not disma^^ed. In a 
few moments their own pieces were replying, and banks of 
angr}^ smoke partially veiled the field from both sides. 

In the midst of the shock of artillery, through the dense 
clouds of flying dust, the assaulting column of the Yankees 
passed througli the crater, fifty feet in length, and half as many 
wide, in what was supposed to be the easy attempt of carrying 
the second line of Confederate works. But there were men 
there ready to receive them who had never flinched from 
death, and who were not to be alarmed by loi^id and furious 
noises. Some colored troops, under General White's com- 
mand, were pushed forward, but the poor creatures, unwilling 
to be thus sacrificed, were soon panic-stricken and past con- 
trol. They crushed into the ranks of the white troops and 



40 THE LAST YEAE OF THE WAR. 

broke tlirougli to the rear. The demoralization was rapid. 
The whole mass of Yankees, broken and shattered, swept back 
like a torrent into the crater, which was soon choked with the 
flying and the dead. An order was given to retreat to tlie old 
lines, but to do this an open space had to be traversed, and 
this again was closely dotted with Yankee dead. 

The action was very brief, very terrible, very decisive. 
Kothing in the war exceeded it in point of severity, and prob- 
ably no conflict had ever been attended with all the appoint- 
ments of war displayed in such graphic prominence. The 
explosion of the mine, the tremendous peals of artillery and 
musketry, the efibrt of the attacking column, the cai-nage, 
and finally the retreat of the Yankees to their old lines, all 
composed a scene of terrible and thrilling interest. 

The Yankee loss was quite five thousand ; that of the 
Confederates was trivial in comparison. It M'as thus stated in 
detail: Mahone's division, four hundred and fifty ; Elliot's South 
Carolina brigade, which was in the blown up fort, tliree hun- 
dred ; Ransom, Clingraan, and Wise, whose commands were 
under musketry and artillery firing for sometime, three linndred. 

The ghastly failure of this last of Grant's attempts upon 
Petersburg appeared to be almost sufficient to persuade the 
Yankee public that his whole campaign had been a failure. 
Some intelligent Yankee newspapers made peculiar comments 
upon it. The Intelligencer, published in Washington, said : 
"After a loss of more than five thousand men, the army has 
made no advance towards the capture of that city, which is 
itself only an outpost of the city of Richmond. The delay in 
springing the mine, the want of concert and promptitude in 
following up the explosion with a dash by our assaulting 
column, and the inaptitude which ordered that this assaulting 
column should be selected from the least trustworthy and 
homogeneous corps in the army, are a suflBcient explanation 
perhaps of this calamity." The New York Times wa*s yet 
more querulous and explicit. It said : " Under the most favor- 
able circumstances, with the rebel force reduced by two great 
detachments, we failed to carry their lines. Will they not 
conclude that the twenty-five thousand men that held Grant 
in check are sufficient to garrison the works of Petersburg ? 
Will they not conclude that, if they were able thus to 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 41 

hold tlieir own with the force of from eighteen to twenty tliou- 
sand men sent to the north side of the James Eiver neutral- 
ized, this force is available for active operations elsewhere ?" 

It was evident that the spirit of the North had commenced 
to stagger under this accumulation of disaster. Gold had al- 
ready nearly touched three hundred. TJie uneasy whispers in 
Washington of another draft gave new suggestions to popular 
discontent. The Confederate Congress had adjourned, after the 
publication of an address referring to recent military events 
and the confirmed resolution of the South, and deprecating the 
enemy's continuance of the war. These declarations were 
eagerly seized upon by Northern journals, who insisted that 
no time should be lost in determining whether they might not 
possibly signify a willingness on the part of the South to make 
peace on the basis of new constitutional guaranties. The 
finances at Washington were becoming desperate. Mr. Chase, 
the Secretary of the Treasury, had peremptorily resigned. His 
last words of oflflcial counsel were, that notliing could save the 
finances but a series of military successes of undoubted mag- 
nitude. 

The brilliant and so far successful campaign of General Lee 
in Yirginia added, if that were possible, to the popular confi- 
dence and devotion which were concentrated upon him more 
than any other man of the South. He had indulged in no 
terms of exultation. He had written the history of his great 
summer campaign of 1864, in brief telegrams in which there 
was never a stray word, and the fullest expressions of which 
were ascriptions of success to the providence of God. Now in 
the highest moments of Confederate confidence and expectation, 
when indeed the people of the South had reason to suppose 
that they stood on the threshold of peace, and were about to 
crown their hopes with triumph, General Lee was still the 
modest and reserved commander, never raising his voice in a 
note of triumph, or spending a comment upon the situation of 
aflPairs. • 

A newspaper printed in Yirginia complained that " General 
Lee never speaks," and with playful but sagacious comment 
continued : " What does he think about ? None of us can read 
the thoughts of that impenetrable bosom. It is appropriate 
that the hero of this story should not be garrulous; the sadness 



42 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAK. 

of the time renders it fitting tliat the helmsman should guide 
the shi}) with few words spoken. Perhaps it is by his very- 
reserve that General Lee has contributed, as much as by any 
other quality, to make the impression he has made on his fel- 
low-citizens. He came before them at the beginning of the 
war by no means the American ideal of a great man. That 
personage was expected to appear with a hullabaloo ; he was 
to descend in a shower of fireworks, and environed by a myriad 
of bursting lights and crackling explosions. For a quiet, un- 
demonstrative gentleman to step upon the scenes was not at all 
to their liking ; and therefore, in the beginning, General Lee 
w'as not popular." 

" Here comes a man bred in the army. He had been reared 
a gentleman. He despised humbug. He loved order, and 
every thing and everybody in his place. He told the ladies 
at Culpepper Courthouse, in 1861, who came out to greet 
him, to ' go home.' In Richmond they said he had no man- 
ners ; he attended to his business, and spoke little. They sent 
him to "Western Virginia — a small theatre, Vvhen Beauregard 
was at Manassas and Johnston was at Winchester ; he went, 
and made no comment. The campaign failed — they called 
him Turveydrop — he did not attempt to excuse himself. Soon 
we find him in a blaze of glory, the hero of the battles around 
Richmond. He is still silent. He marches to Manassas, and 
achieves another great victory. Not a word escapes him. He 
takes Winchester, is foiled at Sharpsburg for the want of men — 
defeats Burnside at Fredericksburg — Hooker at Chancellors- 
ville — but he breaks not his silence. He has the terrible trial 
of Gettysburg — he only remarked, ' It was my fault' — and then 
in the present year he has conducted this greatest of all his 
campaigns — undoubtedly one of the finest in the war. Silent 
still. When will he speak ? Has he nothing to say ? What 
does he think of our affairs ? Should he speak, how the country 
would hang upon every word that fell from him !" 

THE SINKING- OF THE PRIVATEER ALABAMA. 

We must note here, as belonging to the period of Confederate 
successes we have narrated, an event of the war which con- 
siderably qualified the general exultation of the South. 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 43 

While the general situation on land, especially in "Virginia, 
was so advantageous for the Confederacy, and the grand events 
of the campaign of 1864 had so far been decided in its favor, 
there occurred an incident of disaster, which, though distant 
in point of space, and of but little real importance in the de- 
cision of the genei'al furtune of the war, was yet the subject of 
keen and peculiar regret to the Confederates. 

This incident was the loss of the famous privateer Alabama. 
She had eluded the Yankee naval vessels at the Cape of Good 
Hope and Straits of Sunda, and returning westward had pro- 
ceeded to the French port of Cherbourg. Here Captain Semmes 
of the Alabama was strongly persuaded — probably by those 
who valued the eclat abroad of the Southern arms more than 
the substantial interests of the Confederacy, so unequally 
matched in the war, especially in point of naval power — to 
risk his vessel in a gratuitous fight with a Yankee steamer 
lying off the harbor — the Kearsarge. The only object of such 
a naval duel could be the desire of a certain glory on the part 
of Captain Semmes, for which he took the unwarrantable risk 
of sacrificing the only really formidable naval structure of the 
Confederates. It should have occurred to him that, even in 
the event of success, he would inflict no appreciable injury 
upon the enemy's naval power, and would secure nothing more 
than some of that idle glory w^liich was already cheap with his 
countrymen. 

The ships were about equal in match, the tonnage being 
about the same — the Alabama carrying one 7-inch Blakely 
rifled gun,' one 8-ineh smooth-bore pivot gun, and six 32- 
pounders, smooth-bore, in broadside ; the Kearsarge carrying 
four broadside 32-pounders, two 11-inch and one 28-pound 
rifle. On the morning of the 19th of June, the Alabama steamed 
out of the harbor of Cherbourg, for the purpose of engaging 
the Kearsarge, which had been lying off-and-on the port for 
several days previously. She came up with the latter at a dis- 
tance of about seven miles from the shore. The vessels were 
about one mile from each other, when the Alabama opened 
with solid shot upon the enemy, to which he replied in a few 
minutes. 

To prevent passing each other too speedily, and to maintain 
their respective broadsides bearing, it became necessary to fight 



44: THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAE. 

in a circle, the two ships steaming around a common centre, 
and preserving a distance from each other of from a quarter to 
half a mile. The enemy's shot and shell began to tell upon 
the hull of the Alabama. Captain Semmes remarked that his 
shell, though apparently exploding against tlie sides of the 
Kearsarge, were doing her but little damage, and returned to 
solid shot firing, afterwards alternating with shot and shell. 

In little more than an hour, the Alabama was ascertained 
to be in a sinking condition, the enemy's shell having exploded 
in her sides and between decks, opening large apertures, 
through which the water rushed with great rapidity. For 
some few minutes Captain Semmes had hopes of being able to 
reach the French coast, for which purpose he gave the ship all 
steam, and set- such of the fore and aft sails as were available. 
The ship filled so rapidly, however, that before she had made 
much progress the fires were extinguished in the furnaces, and 
she was evidently on the point of sinking. 

Captain Semmes hauled down his colors, when the Kearsarge 
was within four hundred yards of him. Yet the enemy fired 
upon the Alabama five times after her colors had been struck. 
"It is charitable to suppose," says Captain Semmes, " that a 
ship of war of a Christian nation could not have done this in- 
tentionally." 

As the Alabama was on the point of settling, every man, in 
obedience to a previ'ous order which had been given the crew, 
jumped overboard and endeavored to save himself. There 
was no appearance of any boat coming from the enemy after 
the Alabama went down. Fortunately, however, the steam- 
yacht Deerhound, owned by a gentleman of Lancashire, Eng- 
land, Mr. John Lancaster, who was himself on board, steamed 
up in the midst of the drowning men, and rescued a number 
of both officers and men from the water, among them Captain 
Semmes himself. 

The loss of the Alabama in killed and wounded was thirty. 
There was no life lost on the Kearsarge ; and although she had 
received thirteen or fourteen shots in and about the hull, and 
sixteen or seventeen about the masts and rigging, she was not 
materially damaged. In his official report of the fight. Captain 
Semmes said : " At the end of the engagement, it was discovered 
by those of our officers who went alongside the enemy's ship with 



THE LAST YEAE OF THE WAR. 45 

the wounded, that her midship section, on both sides, was thor- 
oughly iron-coated; this having been done with chain con- 
structed for the purpose, placed perpendicularly from the rail 
to the water's edge, the wliole covered over by a thin outer 
planking, which gave no indication of the armor beneath. 
This planking had been ripped oif in every direction by our 
shot and shell, the chain broken and indented in many places, 
and forced partly into the ship's side. She was most effectually 
guarded, however, in this section from penetration." 

The loss of the Alabama was a most severe blow to the pri- 
vateer service of the South. That service had already caused 
nearly a thousand Yankee vessels to be sold to foreign shipping 
merchants ; and it was officially reported at "Washington that 
478,665 tons of American shipping were flying other flags. Such 
had been the terror inspired by Confederate privateers, of 
which the Alabama had been, by far, the most formidable. 
She alone had accomplished a work of destruction estimated 
at from eight to ten millions of dollars. It was reported that 
the news of her loss was received on the exchanges of New York 
and Boston with a joy far livelier than would have been con- 
ceived by these commercial patriots, if they had heard of a 
great victory over Lee's army in Virginia. 



CHAPTER m. 

Sherman's campaign in Georgia. — How parallel with that in Virginia. — The tasks 
of Grant and Sherman compared. — Numerical inferiority of General Johnston's 
forces. — His proposition to the Eichmond authorities. — Pragmatism of President 
Davis and his secretary. — Engagement in Resaca Valley. — General Johnston's 
designs. — Why he retreated. — His disappointment of a battle at Cassville. — En- 
gagement AT New Hope Church. — True theory of the retrograde movement of 
Johnston. —Battle of Kenesaw Mountain. — Sherman's confession.— Sherman 
master of the Chattahoochee. — Johnston falls back to Atlanta. ^The ve.xed ques- 
tion of Jolmston's retreat. — What it surrendered. — What it secured. — Its strategic 
advantages. — Tlie enemy's movements in Virginia and Georgia botli in check. — 
Disappointment of the enemy. — Statistics of Yankee recruiting. — Another Con- 
federate success. — Defeat of Sturgis. — " Tlie Avengers of Fort Pillow." — Barbar- 
ities of the enemy's summer campaign. — Augjnentation of Yankee ferocity. — Its 
effect on the Confederates. — Offensive operation of the Confederates, — Tliree 
projects of invasion. — Early's Invasion of Maryland, &c. — Sigel's retreat. — 
Battle OF Monocacy Bridge. — Early loses the great opportunity of 1864. — Results 
of liis expedition. — Engagement at Kernstown.— Morgan's Invasion of Ken- 
tucky. — His failure. — Price's Invasion of Missouri. — Pilot Knob. — General Ew- 
ing's retreat. — Price retires. 

Parallel and concurrent with Grant's summer campaign 
in Virginia, was the more difficult but less deadly campaign 
of Sherman in Georgia. Grant's point d'^ajppui was on the 
Rapidan, while Sherman's was at Chattanooga, in Tennessee. 
The Alleghany Mountains separated these grand movements ; 
a thousand miles of distance intervened between them ; com- 
munication between them was rare, and, to a certant extent, 
impossible. There is no doubt that Sherman had the more 
difficult task to accomplish. He had but a single line of rail- 
w^ay to reach his objective point, Atlanta, and this traversed a 
wild and mountainous country. Grant could change his base 
at pleasure, or as circumstances required it; he had water 
communication with the North, and transports within hailing 
distance ; he could run no danger from lack of subsistence or 
munitions of war. Again, Sherman, passing through a broken 
and intricate countiy, had .to guard his flanks and rear, at 
every step, from cavalry. Grant had only to put an army of 
occupation in the Shenandoah Valley to close the single defile 



THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR, 47 

between the great mountain ridges of Virginia, and thus 
securely protect his rear from even the possibility of danger. 

It appears from the official report of General Sherman's oper- 
ations, that he had estimated the force required to reach and 
capture Atlanta, at one hundred thousand men and two hundred 
and fifty pieces of artillery : he started with ninety-eight thou- 
sand seven hundred and ninety-seven men and two hundred and 
fifty-four guns. This force was divided as follows : — Army of 
the Cumberland, Major-General Thomas, sixty thousand seven 
hundred and seventy-three men, one hundred and thirty guns; 
Army of the Tennessee, Major-General McPherson, twenty- 
four thousand four hundred and sixty-five men, ninety-six 
guns ; Army of the Ohio, Major-General Schofield, thirteen 
thousand five hundred and fifty-nine men, twenty-eight guns. 
Sherman's intention was to make these proportions fifty thou- 
sand, thirty-five thousand, and fifteen thousand, but that 
wretched j^a^cc known as the Red River Expedition kept back 
some of McPherson's troops, and, besides ruining itself, did as 
much as possible towards impeding Sherman. It 'will be seen 
he was furnished within twelve hundred of the number of men 
he asked for. 

Here again we have the repetition of the story of fearful 
odds against the Confederates. General Joseph E. Johnston, 
who had taken command of the Army of Tennessee, had held 
the Confederate lines in North Georgia, during the winter, 
with thirty odd thousand men. On the 1st of December, 1S64, 
he enumerated the effective total of the infantry and artillery 
of the army, including two brigades belonging to the depart- 
ment of Mississippi, as 36,826. The effective total of the 
cavalry, including Roddy's command at Tuscumbia, was 
5,613. 

In the last weeks of February, 1865, General Johnston had 
proposed to the government at Richmond an offensive move- 
ment against the enemy, on the just ground that he was in- 
creasing the disproportion of numbers, and would take the 
Confederates at greater disadvantage than if they were to 
essay at once a forward movement and try issues with him. 
The proposition lingered in the War Department from Feb- 
ruary to May. General Bragg and President Davis had their 
own plan of offensive operations. General Johnston in vain 



48 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 

telegraphed to Richmond : " I expressly accept taking the 
offensive ; I only differ with you as to details." But " the 
details" dictated at Richmond were insisted upon ; and when 
eventually, in the latter part of April, President Davis sent an 
officer to Georgia to explain his wishes to Johnston, the enemy 
had already prepared to make his long-meditated and formi- 
dable movement. 

On the 1st of May, General Johnston reported the enemy 
ready to advance. The effective artillery and infantry of the 
Army of Tennessee amounted then to 40,900 ; the effective 
cavalry to about four thousand. "With this force Johnston 
had to fight more than twice his numbers, and had no other 
prospect of compensation but in superior skill and strategy. 

Sherman moved on Dalton in three columns ; Thomas in 
front, Schofield from Cleveland on the northeast, while Mc- 
Pherson threw- himself on the line of communication southwest 
at Resaca, fifteen miles south of Dalton. On the 7th of May 
Thomas occupied Tunnel Hill, ten miles northwest of Dalton, 
and took up a strong position at Buzzard's Roost. By the 
flank movement on Resaca, Johnston was forced to evacuate 
Dalton. 

On the 14th the first important engagement of the campaign 
took place in Resaca valley. Two efforts were made to carry 
the breastworks of the Confederates, without success, when 
Johnston, in the afternoon, assumed the offensive, and drove 
the enemy some distance, with a loss which his own bulletins 
stated to be two thousand. 

On the 15th there was desultory fighting, and on the 16th 
General Johnston took up, at leisure, his line of retrograde 
movement in the direction of the Etowah River, passing 
through Kingston and Cassville. 

It was clear, in General Johnston's mind, that the great nu- 
merical superiority of the Yankee army made it expedient to 
risk battle only when position, or some blunder of the enemy, 
might give him counter-balancing advantages. He therefore 
determined to fall back slowly, until circumstances should put 
the chances of battle in his favor, keeping so near the Yankee 
army as to prevent its sending reinforcements to Grant, and 
hoping, by taking advantage of positions and opportunities, to 
reduce the odds against him by partial engagements. He also 



TKE LAST YE.VR OF THE WAK. 49 

expected it to be nuiterially reduced, before the end of June, by 
llie expiration of the terms of service of many of the regin>ents 
wliich had not re-enlisted. In this way he fell back to Cassville 
in two marches. 

Expecting to be attacked, Johnston had drawn np his, troops 
in an excellent position on a bold ridge immetliately in rear 
of Cassville, with an open valley before it. But there appears 
to have been some doubts among his ofHcers as to the value of 
the position. Lieutenant-Generals Polk and Ilood together 
expressed the opinion, very decidedly, that the Yankee artillery 
would drive them, the next day, from tlieir positions, and urged 
General Johnston to abandon the ground immediately, and 
cross the Etowah. Lieutenant-General Hardee was confident 
that he could hold his position. Of this dilemma, General 
Johnston writes in his official report : " The other two officers, 
however, were so earnest and unwilling to depend on the ability 
of their corps to defend the ground, that I yielded, and the 
army crossed the Etowah on the 20th of May, a step lohich I 
have regretted ever since ^' 



ENGAGEMENT AT NEW ITOPE CHURCH. \ 

On the 25th the enemy was found to be intrenched near and 
east of Dallas. Hood's corps was placed with its centre near 
Kew Hope Church, and Polk's and Hardee's ordered between 
it and the Atlanta road, which Hardee's left was to cover. 
An hour before sunset Stewart's division, at New Hope Church, 
was fiercely attacked by Hooker's corps, which it repulsed 
after a hot engagement of two hours. Skirmishing was kept 
up on the 26th and 27t]i. At half past five, p. m., on the 27th, 
Howard's corps assailed Cleburne's division, and was driven 
back, about dark, with great slaughter. In these two actions 
the Confederates were not intrenched. Their loss in each was 
about four hundred and fifty in killed and wounded. On the 
27tli the enemy's dead, except those borne off, were counted 
six hundred, and a reasonable estimate of their entire loss may, 
therefore, be stated as certainly not less than three thousand. 

So far, the retrograde movement of Johnston was, in some 
respects, a success. It had been attended with at least two 

4 



50 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

considerable victories — Resaca and New Hope ; it liad been 
executed deliberately, being scarfcely ever under the immediate 
pressure of "the enemy's advance ; and it had now nearly ap- 
proached the decisive line of the Chattahoochee, or whatever 
other line he, who was supposed to be the great strategist of 
the Confederacy, should select for the cover of Atlanta. The 
events of the campaign, so far, were recounted witli character- 
istic modesty by General Johnston. On the 1st of June he 
telegraplied to Richmond of his army : "In partial engage- 
ments it has had great advantages, and the sum of all the com- 
bats amounts to a battle." 

The two armies continued to manoeuvre for position. Skir- 
mishing was kept up until the 4th of June, the enemy gradu- 
ally extending his intrenched line towards the railroad and 
Acku'ortli. On the morning of the 5th the army was formed 
witli its left at Lost Mountain, its centre near Gilgath Church, 
and its right near the railroad. On the 7th, the right, covered 
by Noonday Creek, was extended across the Ackworth and 
Marietta i-oad. The enemy approached under cover of succes- 
sive lines of iiitrenchments. On the 19th a new line was taken 
by Johnston ; Hood's cm-ps with its right on the Marietta and 
Canton road, Loring's on the Kenesaw Mountain, and Hardee's 
with its left extending across the Lost Mountain and Marietta 
road. The enemy approached, as usual, under cover of in- 
trench meiit. In this position there was incessant lighting and 
skirmishing until July 3d, the enemy gradually extending his 
intrenched rio:ht towards Atlanta. 



BATTLE OF KENESAW MOUNTAIN. 

On the 27th of June, General Sherman directed an attack on 
Johnston's position at Kenesaw Mountain. This mountain 
was the apex of Johnston's lines. Both armies were in strong 
works, the opposite salients being so near, in some places, that 
skirmishers could not be thrown out. The assault of the en- 
emy was made in three columns, about eight o'clock in the 
morning. It was repulsed on every part of the Confederate 
line. The assaults were most vigorous on Cheatliam's and 
Cleburne's divisions of Hardee's corps, and French's and 



THE LAST YEAK OF THE WAK. 51 

Featherstone's of Lorlng's. Lieiitenant-General Hardee re- 
])orted that Cheatham's division lost in killed, wounded, and 
missing, one hundred and ninety-five. The enemy opposed to 
it, by the statement of staff-officers subsequently captured, lost 
two thousand. The loss of Cleburne's division was eleven, 
that of the enemy in his front, one thousand ; and Major-Gen- 
eral Loring reported two hundred and thirty-six of his corps 
killed, wounded, and missing. The loss of the enemy, by their 
own estimates, was between twenty-five hundred and three 
thousand. Of this affair General Sherman wrote, with rare 
candor, or with ])ecn]iar recklessness, that it was a failure ; 
but that it demonstrated to General Johnston the enemy's 
courage — that it " would assault, and that boldly." 

Sherman, on the failure of the .Kenesaw assault, again re- 
sorted to manoeuvring. McPherson's whole army was thrown 
rapidly to the Chattahoochee. On the 22d of July, Johnston 
finding the enemy's right nearer to Atlanta, by several miles, 
than our left, the army fell back, during the night, to Smyrna 
Church. On the 4th, Major-General Smith reported that lie 
should be compelled to withdraw, on the morning of the 5th, 
to the line of intrenchments covering the raih-oad bridge and. 
Turner's Ferry. The army was, therefore, ordered to retire at 
the same time to that line, to secure our bridges. Tlie cavalry 
crossed the Chattahoochee — Wheeler observing it for some 
twenty miles above, and Jackson as far below. 

Sherman was left master of the Chattahoochee, and Atlanta 
lay hut eight miles distant. Peach-tree Creek, and the river 
below its mouth, was now taken by Johnston for his line of 
defence. A position on the high ground south of the creek 
was selected for the army, from which to attack the enemy 
while crossing. The engineer officers, with a large force of 
ncgrnes, were set to work to strengthen the fortifications of 
xVtlaiita ; and the two armies confronted each other in what 
was unmistakably the crisis of the Georgia campaign. 

We can easily state the just and historical merits of that 
(jucstion so much discussed in Confederate prints — the retreat 
of .lolinston to Atlanta. Something may always be said on 
l.'oth sides of a question which has divided the public mind, 
and iieen a topic of a certain censure as well as of approbation. 

It i.-i ti'ue that, in some respects, Johnston's retreat to At- 



52 THE LAST YKAR OF TIIK WAR. 

lanta was a sore disappointment to tlie Confederate public ; 
for it had given np to the Yankees half of Georgia, abandoned 
one of the finest -udieat districts of the Confederacy, almost 
ripe for harvest; and at Rome and on the Etowah River, had 
surrendered to the enemy iron-rolling mills, and government 
works of great value. 

In other respects, however, the retreat had been a in aster- 
piece of strategy, and a solid as well as a splendid success. 
The loss of our infantry and artillery, from the 5th of May, had 
been about ten thousand in killed and wounded, and four 
thousand seven hundred from all other causes. According to 
the opinions of our most experienced officers, daily reports of 
prisoners, and statements of Korthern papers, the enemy's loss 
in action could not have been less than five times as great 
as ours. 

The strategic advantages which Johnston had secured in his 
retreat were indisputable. " At Dalton," writes Johnston, 
"the great numerical superiority of the enemy made the 
chances of battle much against ns ; and, even if beaten, they 
had a safe refuge behind the fortified pass of Ringgold and in the 
fortress of Chattanooga. Our refuge, in case of defeat, was in 
Atlanta, one hundred miles off, with three rivers intervening. 
Therefore, victory for us could have been decisive, while 
defeat would have been utterly disastrous. Between Dalton 
and the Chattahoochee we could have given battle only by 
attacking the enemy intrenched, or so near intrenchments that 
the only result of success to us would have l>een his falling 
back into them ; while defeat would have been our ruin. In 
the course pursued, our troops, always fighting under cover, 
had very trifling losses, compared with those they inflicted ; 
so that the enemy's numerical superiority Avas reduced daily 
and rapidly, and we could reasonably have expected to cope 
with the Federal army on equal ground by the time the Chat- 
tahoochee was passed. Defeat on this side of the river would 
have been its destruction. We, if beaten, had a place of 
refuge in Atlanta, too strong to be assaulted, and too extensive 
to be invested," 

It was clear, in the month of July, that a pause had been 

given to the parallel operations of the enemy in Yirginia and 

•Georgia ; aimed, the one at Richmond, whicli the Yankees 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAE. 53 

entitled the heart and brains of the Confederacy ; and the 
other at AtLanta, the centre of important manufacturing en- 
terprises, and the door to the great granary of the Gulf States. 
Both movements were for the time unmistakably in check ; 
and the interlude of indecision afforded a curious commentary 
on the boastful confidence that had recorded the fall of Rich- 
mond and the capture of Atlanta as the expectations of each 
twenty-four hours. 

There was reason, indeed, for the North to be depressed. 
The disa2>pointment of the Yankees was with particular ref- 
erence to the campaign of Grant in Virginia. The advance 
from the Rapidan, which we have followed to its recoil before 
Petersburg, had been made under conditions of success which 
had attended no other movement of the enemy. It was made 
after eight months' deliberate preparation. In the Congress 
at Washington it was stated that, in these eight months, the 
Govcii'nment had actually raised seven hundred thousand men, 
an extent of preparation which indicated an intention to 
overwhelm and crush the Confederacy by a resistless combined 
attack. ISTor was this all. One hundred thousand three 
months' men were accepted from Ohio and other States, for 
defensive service, in order that General Grant might avail 
himself of the whole force of trained soldiers. The result of 
the campaign, so far, did not justify the expectations on 
which it had been planned. The Yankee Government which, 
since the commencement of the war, had called for a grand 
total of twenty-three hundred thousand men, and had actually 
raised eighteen hundred thousand men, of an average term of 
service of three years, to crush the Confederacy, saw, in the 
fourth year of the war, the Confederacy erect and defiant, and 
Richmond shielded by an army which had so far set at naught 
the largest preparations and most tremendous exertions of 
the North. 

There had been successes, too, in other parts of the Con- 
federacy than Virginia and Georgia. While the movements 
we have just been relating were taking place in Georgia, an 
important event had taken place in the Southwest — the defeat 
of the Yankee expedition under Sturgis on its way from 
Memphis to operate in Sherman's rear. In this action, at 
Guntown (13th June), Sturgis lost most of his infantry and all 



54 TEE LAST YEAR OF THIC WAR. 

of his artillery and trains, and the Confederates, under Forrest, 
achieved a victory that had an important influence on the 
campaign in Georgia. Forrest took two thousand prisoners, 
and killed and wounded an equal number. 

This expedition, so severely punished, was one of peculiar 
atrocity. Its crimes were enough to sicken the ear. It 
flourished the title of the "Avengers of Fort Pillow." " Be- 
fore the battle," says a correspondent, " fugitives from the 
counties through which Sturgis and his troops were advan- 
cing came into camp, detailing incidents which made men 
shudder, who are accustomed to scenes of violence and blood- 
shed. I cannot relate the stories of these poor frightened 
people. Rude unlettered men, who had fought at Shiloh, and 
in many subsequent battles, wept like children when they 
heard of the enormities to which their mothers, sisters, and 
wives had been subjected by the negro mercenaries of Sturgis." 

Indeed, we may state here, that the enemy's summer.cam- 
paign in Yirginia and in the West was, more than any other, 
marked by the barbarities of the enemy. These barbarities 
had, by regular augmentation, become more atrocious as the 
war had progressed. In this year, they exceeded all that was 
already known of the brutality of our enraged enemy. 

General Sherman illustrated the campaign in the West by a 
letter of instructions to General Burbridge, commanding in the 
Department of Kentucky, charging him to treat all partisans 
of the Confederates in that State as '''"wild beastsJ^ It was the 
invariable and convenient practice of the Yankees to designate 
as " guerillas" whatever troops of the Confederates were par- 
ticularly troublesome to them ; and the opprobrious term was 
made, by General Sherman, to include the regularly commis- 
sioned soldiers of General Morgan's command, and whatever 
bodies of Confederate cavalry chose to roam over territory 
which the enemy disputed.* 

* Burbridge was not slow to carry out the suggestions or instructions of liis 
masters. The following is a copy of a section of one of his orders. 

Headquaeters District KENTucKr, 
Fifth Division, Twenty-third Army Corps, 
Lexington, Kentucky, July 16, 1S64. 
Eebel sympathizers living within five miles of any scene of outrage com- 
m^ilted by armed men, not recognized as i)ublic enemies by the rules and 



THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAK. 55 

Some expressions in the orders referred to were character- 
istic of the Yankee, and indicated those notions of constitu- 
tional law which had rapidly demoralized the North. General 
Sherman declared that be had already recommended to Gov- 
ernor Bramlette of Kentucky, " at one dash to arrest every 
man in the conntry who was dangerous to it." "The fact is," 
said this military Solomon, " in onr country personal liberty 
has been so well secured, that public safety is lost sight of in 
our laws and institutions; and the fact is, we are thrown back 
one hundred years in civilization, laws, and every thing else, 
and will go right straight to anarchy and the devil, if some- 
body don't arrest our downward progress. We, the military,' 

must do it, and we have right and law on our side 

Under this law, everybody can be made to staj^ at home and 
mind his or her own business, and, if they won't do that, can 
be sent away." These sage remarks on American libei-ty were 
concluded with the recommendation that all males and females, 
in sympathy with so-called " guerillas," should be arrested and 
sent down the Mississippi to some foreign land, where they 
should be doomed to perpetual exile. 

As Sherman advanced into the interior of Georgia he laid 
waste the country, fired the houses, and even did not hesitate 
at the infamous expedient of destroying the agricultural imple- 
ments of all those who produced from the soil subsistence for 
man. He declared to the persecuted people that this time he 
would have their property, but, if the war continued, next 
year he would have their lives. Four hundred factory girls 
whom he captured in Georgia he bundled into army wagons, 



usages of war, will be arrested and sent beyoud the limits of tbe United 
States. 

In accordance witli instructions from tbe major-general commanding the 
military district of the Mississippi, so much of the property of rebel sympathiz- 
ers as may be necessary to indemnify the Government or loyal citizens for 
losses incurred by the acts of such lawless men, wiU be seized and appropriated 
for this purpose. 

Whenever an unarmed Union citizen is murdered, four guerillas will be 
selected from the prisoners in the hands of the military authorities, and pub- 
licly shot to death in the most cohvenient place near the scene of outrage. By 
command of 

Brevet Major-Qeneral S. G. Bukbhedge. 
J. B. Dickson, Captain and A A. General. 



56 THE LAST YKAR OF THE VVAK. 

"*"and ordered them to be transported beyond the Ohio, where 
the poor girls were put adrift, far from home and friends, in a 
sti'ange hind.* 

From Chattanooga to Marietta there was presented to the 
eye one vast scene of misery. The fugitives from ruined vil- 
higes or deserted fields sought shelter in the mountains. Cities 
were sacked, towns burnt, popuhitions decimated. All along 
the roads weire great wheat-fields, and crops sufficient to feed 
all New England, which were to be lost for want of laborers. 
The country had been one of the most beautiful of the Con- 
federacy. One looked upon the gentle undulations of the val- 
leys, terminating in the windings of the i-ivers, and flanked by 
the majestic barriers of the mountains. This beautiful country 
had been trodden over by both armies- In every town the 
more public buildings and the more conspicuous residences had 
been devoured by fire, or riddled with shot and shell. Every 
house used as headquarters, or for Confederate commissary 
stores, or occupied by prominent citizens, had been singled out 
by the enemy for destruction. In some instances churches 



* The following announcement appeared in the Louisville newspapers : 

" Arrival of Women and Children fkom the South. — The train which arrived 
from Nashville last evening: brought up from the South two hundred and forty-nine 
women and children, wIjo are sent here by order of General Sherman, to be trans- 
lerred north of the Ohio Eiver, there to remain during the war. We understand 
that there are now at Nashville fifteen hundred women and children, who are in a 
very destitute condition, and who are to be sent to this place to be sent North. A 
number of them were engaged in tlie manufactories at Sweet Water at the time that 
place was captured by our forces. These people are mostly in a destitute condition, 
having no means to provide for themselves a support. Why they should be sent 
here to be transferred North is more than we can understand." 

It was also stated in these same papers that, when these women and children 
arrived at Louisville, they were detained there and advertised to be hired out 
as sei-vants, to take the place of the large number of negroes who had been 
liberated by the military authorities and were now gathered in large camps 
throughout Kentucky, where they were fed and supported in idleness and 
viciousness at the expense of the loyal taxpayers. Thus, while these negro 
women were rioting and luxuiiating in the Federal camps, on the bounty of 
the Government, the white women and children of the South were arrested at 
their homes, and sent off as prisoners to a distant country, to be sold in bond- 
age, as the following advertisement fully attests : 

" Notice. — Families residini: in the city or the country, wishing seamstresses or 
servants, can be suited by applying at the refugee quarters on Broadway, between 
Ninth and Tenth. This is sanctioned by Captain Jones, provost-marshal." 



Tllli LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 57 

had not escaped. Tliey had been stripped for fire-wood or con- 
verted into barraclis and hospitals. Fences were demolislied, 
and here and there a lordly mansion stood an uusightlj ruin. 

The vandalism of Hunter in Virginia drew upoli him the 
censure of the few journals in the North which made any pre- 
tension to the decencies of humanity. At Lexington, he had 
burned the Virginia Military Institute with its valuable library, 
philosophical and chemical apparatus, relics and geological 
specimens ; sacked Washington College, and burned the house 
of ex-Governor Letcher, giving his wife only ten minutes to 
save a few articles of clothing. 

Such enormities were monstrous enough ; they shocked the 
moral sentiment of the age; yet they did not aifright the soul 
of the South. Tiie outrages practised upon helpless women, 
more helpless old age, and hopeless poverty, assured the people 
of the Confederacy of the character of their enemies, and the 
designs of the war, and awakened resolution to oppose to the 
last extremity the mob of murderers and lawless miscreants 
who desecrated their soil and invaded their homes. 

We turn from the dominant and controlling events of the 
campaign of 1864, in Virginia and Georgia, to x)ther fields of 
the war, which were within, or close upon the period which 
our narrative so far has traversed. 

There properly belonged to the campaign of the summer 
and earl}' fall of 1864 three projects of the Confedei'ate inva- 
sion of the territory held or disputed by the enemy. These 
were Earlj^'s invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania, Mor- 
gan's invariion of Kentucky, and Price's invasion of Missouri. 
Their results were small ; opportunities were badly used ; in 
brief, the Confederate attempts of 1864 at invasion did not 
differ from the former weak experiments of the kind. 



EAKLT S INVASION OF MARYLAND, ETC. 

The Confederates had planned a series of offensive opera- 
tions on a small scale, the object of which was to interrupt the 
main campaigns in the East and West. This line of opera- 
tions began with Early's invasion of Maryland. About the 
same time the enemy was startled by the news of an invasion 



58 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAK. 

of Kentucky by a considerable body of Confederates, moving 
into that State through Pound Gap. But Early's movement 
was the superior one, and commands attention first. 

After the engagement at Lynchburg, June 18, Hunter 
found no way of escape so convenient as through the Blue 
Ridge to Gauley. This left the way open for Early to move 
up tlie valley. He did so, accompanied by a cavalry force 
under Ransom, and reached the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 
July 3, at a point just above Harper's Ferry, threatening 
Martinsburg. Sigel, holding the latter place, fell back towards 
Sharpsburg. The Confederates immediately occupied Mar- 
tinsburg, where they captured valuable stores. The same day 
a fight occurred at Leetown, south of the railroad, in which 
General Mulligan, covering Sigel's retreat, was finally forced 
back to Sharpsburg, where he joined Sigel, and another en- 
gagement occurred. The Yankee forces being overpowered, 
fell back to Maryland Heights. Max Weber, evacuating 
Harper's Ferry, joined Sigel. In the mean time. General E. 
B. Tyler, protecting the railroad from Baltimore to the Mono- 
cacy, prepared fur resisting the Confederates and to reinforce 
Sigel. General Lew Wallace joined him on the afternoon of 
the 3d. 

On Saturday, July 9, the Confederates disappeared from 
Greencastle, Hagerstown, and from other points threatened ; 
but this was only for the purpose of concentration. The 
Yankee forces had evacuated Frederick the previous night, 
and fallen back to Monocacy Bridge. 



BATTLE OF MONOCACY BRIDGE. 

The bridge is four miles from Fredeiuck City. The river 
runs due north and south. The railroad and national road 
cross the river at very nearly the same point. As our troops 
advanced towards the river from Frederick it became apparent 
that some forces of the enemy, supposed at the time to be cav- 
alry, were holding the east bank. A couple of our batteries 
opened on them from the front, while our cavalry were ordered 
to go up the stream and cross over the bridge. At the same 
time a considerable force of our infantry moved down th:i 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 59 

stream, and crossing south of the bridge, formed in a piece of 
woods on the high ground. It was still believed that the en- 
emy had nothing but cavalry on the ground, but our infantry 
being ordered forward, emerged into an open field and dis- 
covered the enemy's infantry drawn up in line of battle along 
the railroad at the further end of the field. The railroad being 
several feet lower than the field, the enemy had all the advan- 
tages of an intrenched position. Evans's brigade charged 
across tliis field under a heavy fire of musketry. AVhen within 
fifty yards of the enemy's position, another body of the enemy 
emerged from the woods on our right and attacked the brigade 
in flank, and rendered its position critical ; but other of our 
forces coming up, the enemy's flank movement was coun- 
teracted. A simultaneous charge was then made by our whole 
line, when the enemy broke and fled, leaving between a thou- 
sand and twelve hundred dead and wounded, and seven hun- 
dred prisoners in our hands. The enemy left the railroad and 
national pike and fled north in the direction of Gettysburg. 

In this action, which lasted about two hours from the time 
of firing the first shot, we lost in killed and wounded between 
five and six hundred men and some valuable oflicers. 

Our forces did not follow the enemy, but proceeded directly 
towards Washington and Baltimore, making rapid marches, 
bnt collectino; cattle and horses alono^ the route. 

The Yankee capital was in imminent peri], and the whisper 
ran through the North that it was already lost or surely 
doomed. General Early might have taken it by assault. 
There were only a few regiments to man its defences, and the 
advance of the Confederates was waited hourly by a popula- 
tion thrown into pitiable consternation. But General Early 
did not seize the great opportunity of 1864. He passed the 
time in which he might have struck the. decisive blow in weak 
hesitation ; he reconnoitred the defences of Washington ; he 
scattered his forces into expeditions to destroy telegraphs and 
intercept trains ; but he could not make up his mind to attack 
the Yankee capital, and with that characteristic Confederate 
stupidity which never completed its victories, and was easily 
pleased with half-way successes, he was satisfied with the re- 
sults of a raid, where, with more enterprise and persistence, lie 
might have achieved the most decisive and brilliant success of 



60 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAE. 

tlie war — marched into Washington, and made his name as 
illustrious as that of Stonewall Jackson. 

About the middle of July the Confederates began to disap- 
pear across the Potomac fords, carrying with them niany of 
the fruits of their expedition. It was reported by General 
Early that he brought south of the Potomac five thousand 
horses and twenty-five hundred beef-cattle. Besides this, his 
cavalry and artillery were all supplied with new and valuable 
horses. He had also created a useful diversion, and compelled 
Grant to weaken his army materially before Petersburg. But 
it must be confessed that the results of his expedition fell be- 
low public expectation in the South, and that he was justly 
charged with not having made full use of his opportunities. 

After crossing the Potomac, General Early had occasion to 
give another sharp lesson to the enemy. He turned back 
upon Crook, who was pursuing him with about 15,000 infantry 
and cavalry. The fight commenced between Bartonsville and 
Kernestown, about five miles from Winchester. Our forces 
ran the enemy to Bunker's Hill, twelve miles beyond Win- 
chester, and thoroughly routed them. General Crook con- 
fessed to a loss of one thousand in killed and wounded. Our 
entire loss was sixty. After this General Early occupied Mar- 
tinsburg, and a pause ensued in the campaign in the Yalley ; 
nothing of any importance occurring for some weeks, except 
the raid of a few hundred Confederate cavalry to Chambers- 
burg, Pennsylvania, who burned a considerable portion of the 
town. 

morgan's invasion of KENTUCKY. 

General John Morgan's expedition into Kentucky was, oil 
the whole, a failure. In the early part of June, with some 
2,500 men, he entered Kentucky by Pound Gap, and by swift 
movements got possession of Paris, Georgetown, Cynthia, 
Williamstown, Mount Sterling, and other towns. A passenger 
train on the Louisville and Lexington Railroad, near Smith- 
field, was attacked, and two passenger cars and a baggage car 
burned. Other trains were attacked, and railroad communi- 
cation was for some days interrupted. On the 9tli of June, 
General Burbridge, who followed Morgan from Pound Gap. 



THE LAST YFAR OF ITIE WAR. 61 

came np with him at Mount Sterling, and had an indecisive 
engagement. A portion of Morgan's command entered Lex- 
ington at two o'clock the next morning, burned the Kentncky 
Central Railroad depot, and left at ten o'clock, in the direction 
of Georgetown and Frankfort. Part of the town of Cynthia 
was also burned. Two Ohio regiments stationed there were 
captured. On the 12th June, General Burbridge fell upon 
Morgan's forces while at breakfast near Cynthia, and after an 
hour's hard fighting defeated him, killing three hundred, 
wounding nearly as many, and capturing nearly four hundred, 
besides recapturing nearly one hundred of the Ohio troops, 
and over one thousand horses. 



PRrCE S INVASION OF MISSOURI. 

It was late in September when offensive operations M'ere 
essayed in the distant and obscure country west of the Mis- 
sissippi. In that month, General Price moved into Missouri 
with a force estimated at from ten to twenty thousand men. 
A great excitement was produced, and it was thought that a 
raid was contemplated on St. Louis. 

Price's main army moved against the village of Pilot Knob, 
86 miles south of St. Louis, the terminus of the railroad, and 
the depot for supply of the lower outposts. Several desperate 
assaults were made on this strongly fortified position of the 
enemy. Under cover of the night. General Ewing, the Yankee 
in command, evacuated Pilot Knob, and effected a disastrous 
retreat to Rolla. In his ofiicial report he said : "The refugees, 
men, women, and children, white and black, who clung to the 
command, nearly sacriiiced it by their panics. I had to throw 
out the available fighting force, infantry and cavalry, as ad- 
vance and rear guards and flankers, leaving in the body of the 
column the affrighted non-combatants and two sections of ar- 
tillery, not often brought into action on the retreat. Repeated 
and stubborn eftbrts were made to bring us to a stand, and 
could they have forced a halt of an hour they would have en- 
veloped and taken us; but our halts, though frequent, were 
brief, and were only to unlimber the artillery, stagger the pur- 
suers witli a few rounds, and move on." 



62 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR, 

General Price stopped short of Rolla. For some cause — 
probably th^ demoralization of his army and their disappoint- 
ment of active sympathy in the country they had penetrated — 
he seems to have abandoned at tliis stage the original designs 
of his expedition. He subsequently went into winter-quarters 
in the vicinity of Washington. He collected but few supplies, 
and his men were reported to be in worse plight than when 
they left Arkansas. 



THE LAST YEAE OF THE WAE. 63 



CHAPTER lY. 

Great revulsion in the public mind of the North in the summer of 18(')4. — A E^eneral 
outcry for peace.— Spirit of Yankee newspapers. — ^The Niagara Falls " Commis- 
sion." — The Jacques-Gilmore Affair.— Sorry figure of the Confederacy in tliese 
negotiations. — The question of peace negotiations in the Confederacy. — True 
method of peace. — Manifesto of the Confederate Congress. — Po.sition of President 
Davis — His letter to Governor Vance, of North Carolina. — Tlie Chicago Conven- 
tion, etc. — Speeches, etc. — The real programme of the Democratic party. — Why 
it broke down. — No virtue in public opinion in the North. — The true peace men 
of the North. — Their Convention at Cincinnati. — A reaffirmation of Jeffer.^onian 
Democracy. — A masterpiece of statesmanship. — Tlie Presidential campaign of 

lS(i4. — The RIVAL AnMINISTRATIONS AT RICHMOND AND WASHINGTON. — A COMPARA- 
TIVE VIEW OF Northern despotism. — The conscription and impressment laws of the 
Confederacy. — The offerinss of Southern patriotism.— The Yankee record in the 
matter of slavery.—" Military necessity." — The Yankee record in the matter of 
civil liberty. — An outrage upon history. 

Grant's complete failure in the Virginia campaign, and Slier- 
man's dead-lock at Atlanta — the first marked by the most 
frightful slaughter — had produced an evident and great re- 
vulsion in the public mind of the ISTorth. The masses in that 
country appeared to have become at last thoronghlj' aroused 
to a true sense of their condition. On every side arose the 
demand for peace. Popular demonstrations had already taken 
place in several localities, showing that the peo])le of the 
North were growing tired of the Avar, and demanded that it 
should be stopped. Yankee newspapers, tliat were at one 
time earnest advocates for a vigorous prosecution of the war, 
were now still more earnestly in favor of a vigorous prosecu- 
tion of peace. They no longer spoke w^ith bated breath and 
whispering humbleness. They said what they meant. ""^ 

* As a most interesting evidence of the extent of this disposition to peace in 
the Northern mind, we collate the following extracts from " the peace press," 
as well as from papers that had given a quasi support to the war : 

From the jVetv York Tribune. 
We feel certain that two-thirds of the American people on either side of the 
dividing line anxiously, absorbingly, desire pence, and are ready to make all 
needful sacrifices to insure it. Then why shall it be long withheld ? Let us 



64: THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAK. 

In tlie summer of 1SG4: there were certain movements look- 
ing to a special negotiation for peace, which drew no little of 
the public attention. These movements were fruitless — in 
some respects they were unworthy and absurd ; but they are 
interesting as indicating, at the time they took place, a general 
popular disposition to peace, proceeding from the Northern 
despondency on the one hand, and the consequent hopes of the 
South. 

know, as soon as may be, the most that the rebel chiefs will do to secure peace ; 
let us know what is the " ultimatum" on our side. We have no sympathy 
with the shuddering dread that our Government may, by listening to propo- 
sitions from the rebels, virtually acknowledge their independence. Etiquette 
is tlie disease of little minds, great souls are never troubled by it. 

Washington Constitutional Union. 
The cry for peace is rung into our ears from every section of tlie country — 
from all divisions and parties. Even the fanatics have cooled down, in meas- 
ure, from their fury for blood, have lost the vampire instincts ; and, horrified 
at the tales of slaughter they read, and shocked at the sights of hospital suf- 
fering, and of the maimed and crippled crawling about our streets, they even 
wish the termination of strife which, unprocreative of benefit to either party, 
even to the medius termimis, the negro, is crushing the vital and social exist- 
ence of both. Physical calamity constantly displayed before their vision, and 
high prices crushing out the means of comfortable subsistence, has at length 
softened the heart of the hardened abolitionist into a lurking yearning for the 

cessation of arms. 

Dayton ( Oldd) Daily Empire. 

We can have no peace so long as the men are allowed to prescribe its terms. 

Let the people, in their sovereign might, command that this cruel war be 

ended, and all differences between the States be submitted to the arbitrament 

of a convention. 

Troy Daily Press. 

To-day, the people of the " loyal" and seceded States would be able to agree 
upon conditions of peace and stop the war. And it is the duty of the hour to 
hasten an opportunity for this, by shoving aside extreme men and placing in 
power those who believe that, in a government like ours, concession, couciliar 
tion and compromise, are better remedies for differences than eternal strife 
and war. 

Chicago Times. 

The necessity for peace upon honorable terms is too imperative to permit 
its sacrifice to a blind, selfish, or corrupt partnership. The alternatives now 
presented to the nation are peace with honor, and war Avith dishonor ; ]-»eace 
with preservation of life, and war with its extended and murderous conflicts ; 
peace with national and individual solvency, and war with national and indi- 
vidual bankruptcy. 

FrO}}i the World. 

The new President, to be nominated at Chicago, and elected in November, 
must be a man ready and willing to meet any and every overture for peace, a 



THE LAST YKAR OF TnH WAIJ. 65 

In the month of July the whole Northern public was aroused 
hy a sudden statement in the newspapers, that Messrs. C. C. 
Clay and Jacob Thompson, Southern Commissioners to nego- 
tiate a peace, and who had associated with them George 
Saunders, and also obtained the intermediate services of 
Horace Greeley, were at Niagara Falls soliciting a safe con- 
duct to Washington, and that " tei'ms of peace were already 
passing over the wires." 

There was the usual Yankee exaggeration in this news. 
Messrs. Clay and Thompson had sought a safe conduct to 
Washington, for an informal conference to ascertain if there 
was any possible common ground on which negotiations for 
peace might be initiated ; and they had been unmercifully 
snubbed by the authorities, after the usual Yankee fashion of 
treating all the humble and begging attempts of the Confed- 
erates to reach the back-door of Washington. Mr. Lincoln dis- 
patched a reply, addressed " To whom it may concern^'' de- 
claring that the Union, with the additional and positive con- 
dition of the abandonment of slavery, was the sine qua nan of 
peace. 

Almost contemporary with the Niagara Falls affair there 
was an incident in Richmond, which put in striking contrast 
the sturdy indifference of Mr. Lincoln, and the simplicity and 
pliancy of the Confederate autliorities. 

In the same month of J uly a letter was received from Gen- 
eral Grant, asking permission of the Confederate authorities 
for Colonel Jacques, of the 73d Illinois infantry, and one J. R, 
Gilmore, to meet Colonel Quid, the Confederate Commissioner 
of Exchange, between the lines of the two armies. Ould 
brought the two Yankees to Richmond for the purpose of see- 
ing President Davis. It appeared that they came with the 
knowledge and approval of President Lincoln, and under his 

man wlio shall represent truly the dignity and power of the nation, and who 
will not be unwilling even to tender an armistice suggesting a National Con- 
vention of all the States. 

From the New TorJs News. 

The peace Democracy will indorse a nomination that faithfully represents 
the sentiments herein stated. They are willing to trust to the good sense and 
patriotism of the people for the realization of a definite peace as the sequel of 
an armistice and National Convention. 

5 



66 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAH. 

pass ; and, while they dischiimed the character of authorized 
commissioners, they professed to be directly acquainted with 
the views of the Washington authorities, and plainly hinted 
that their business was to pave the way for a meeting of formal 
commissioners authorized to negotiate for peace. 

These two obscure Yankees were treated with silly distinc- 
tion in Richmond. They were admitted to a personal inter- 
view with President Davis, who " grasped the hand of one of 
them with effusion," and entertained them with a long disqui- 
sition on State Rights, Secession, etc. There was, of course, 
some Yankee dramatization in the interview. Jacques had 
arrived in Richmond attired in a large linen duster ; but no 
sooner had he confronted the Confederate President than he 
threw off" the garment, disclosing the military uniform and in- 
signia of a Yankee colonel. 

It appears that these parties had not a single definite 
proposition to make, and that they sounded Mr. Davis thor- 
oughly, and, easily approaching his vanity, induced him to 
make a very elaborate and rhetorical exposition of his views 
and designs. They carried a long story back to the Yankee 
newspapers, and made no little capital out of their visit to Rich- 
mond by " sensations" in the Northern pictorials and itine- 
rant "lectures" at twenty-five cents a head. 

The nu_)re intelligent and worthy portion of the Confederate 
public were greatly wounded in their pride by the behavior of 
their authorities on the peace question. Many of these per- 
sons had, since the very commencement of the war, insisted on 
the futility and impropriety of essaying to open any special ne- 
gotiations with the enemy on peace. There were the many 
distinct avowals of the purpose of the war on our side, in the 
declarations and acts of the Government, invariably protesting 
our simple desire " to be let alone," which were already a clear 
and standing tender of peace. The issues could not be made 
more distinct or more urgent than in the ofiEicial record. Why, 
they argued, should we go beyond it by attempts at kitchen con- 
ferences, which might not only be insolently rebuffed by the en- 
emy, to the damage of our self-respect, but which, as our experi- 
ences had so far shown, were invariably misinterpreted, and not 
without plausibility, as signs of decadence and weakness in our 
military affairs. True, the proud and intelligent persons in 



TIIK LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 67 

the Confederacy were as anxious for peace as those who were 
constantly professing their devotion to this end. But they 
considered that the honor and self-respect of their countrymen 
had been lowered by devious and unworthy attempts at nego- 
tiation. Having once announced the terms of peace sufficiently, 
they judged they would do right, while awaiting the overtures 
of the enemy, not to betray their anxiety, or open any unne- 
cessary discussions on the subject. And there could be no 
doubt of the sufficiency of these announcements. 

A few weeks before the Jacques-Gilmore " mission" the 
Confederate Congress had published a manifesto naming the 
terms of peace, sufficiently explaining to the enemy the de- 
mands of the Richmond Government, and certainly leaving 
no occasion for discussing the matter with Yankee intermed- 
dlers, who might choose to visit the Confederate capital on the 
errands of curiosity, or perhaps in the office of spies. The 
principles, sentiments, and purposes by which these States had 
been actuated, were set forth in that paper with all the author- 
ity due to the solemn declaration of the legislative and execu- 
tive departments of the Government, and with a clearness 
which left no room for comment or explanation. In a few 
sentences it was pointed out that all we asked was immunity 
from interference with our internal peace and prosperity, 
" and to be left in the undisturbed enjoyment of those inalien- 
able rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which 
our common ancestors declared to be the equal heritage of all 
parties to the social compact. Let them forbear aggressions 
upon us, and the war is at an end. If there be questions 
which require adjustment by negotiation, we have ever been 
willing, and are still willing, to enter into communication 
with our adversaries, in a spirit of peace, of equity, and manly 
frankness." 

President Davis himself had even more explicitly indicated 
the methods of peace, excluded special efforts at negotiation 
with the enemy, and taken a position to which his conduct a 
few months subsequently was absurdly and inexplicably op- 
posite. 

Governor Yance of Korth Carolina had written to him, re- 
ferring to certain political discontent in that State, and pro- 
posing an effort at negotiation with the enemy, which would 



G8 THE LAST TEAR OF TIIK AVAR. 

appease the malcontents, and, if unsuccessful, would strengthen 
and intensify the war feeling. 

On the Sth of January, ISGi, President Davis wrote a long 
letter in reply. Some passages of this letter are of sufficient 
interest to be reproduced by the side of the events of the sum- 
mer of the same year. The President wrote : 

" We have made three distinct efforts to communicate with 
the authorities at Washington, and have been invariably un- 
successful. Commissioners were sent before hostilities were 
begun, and the Washington Government refused to receive 
them or hear what they had to say. A second time I sent a 
military officer with a communication addressed by raj'self to 
President Lincoln. The letter was received by General Scott^ 
who did not permit the officer to see Mr. Lincoln, but promised 
that an answer would be sent. No answer has ever been re- 
ceived. The third time, a few months ago, a gentleman was 
sent, whose position, character, and reputation were such as 
to insure his reception, if the enemy were not determined to 
receive no proposals whatever from the Government. Vice- 
President Stephens made a patriotic tender of his services, in 
the hope of being able to promote the cause of humanity ; and 
although little belief was entertained of his success, I cheerfully 
yielded to his suggestion, that the experiment should be tried. 
The enemy refused to let him pass through their lines or to hold 
any conference with them. He was stopped before he reached 
Fortress Monroe, on his way to Washington. To attempt again 
(in the face of these repeated rejections of all conference with 
us) to send commissioners or agents to propose peace, is to in- 
vite insult and contumely, and to subject ourselves to indig- 
nity without the slightest chance of being listened to. . . . 

'" I cannot recall at this time one instance in which I have 
failed to announce that our only desire was peace, and the only 
terms which formed a sine qua non were precisely those that 
you suggested, namely, ' a demand only to be let alone.' But 
suppose it were practicable to obtain a conference through 
commissioners with the Government of President Lincoln, is 
it at this moment that we are to consider it desirable, or even 
at all admissible? Have we not just been apprized by that 
despot that we can only expect his gracious pardon by eman- 
cipating all our slaves, swearing allegiance and obedience to 



THE LAST YI:AR OF Ti^E WAE. 69 

him and his proclamation, and becoming in point of fact tlio 
slaves of our own negroes ?" 

But the peace movements in the IN'orth, to wliich we have 
referred, were to take a more practical direction, in view of 
the approaching Presidential election in that country. 



THE CHICAGO CONVENTION, ETC. 

The Democratic National Convention met at Chicago on the 
29th of August. The Convention was called to order by Mr. 
August Belmont, who said that " four years of misrule by a 
sectional, fanatical, and corrupt party had brought our country 
to the verge of ruin. The past and present are sufficient 
warnings of the disastrous consequences which would befall us 
if Mr. Lincoln's re-election should be made possible by our 
want of patriotism and unity." 

Mr. Bigler, formerly Governor of Pennsylvania, and Senator 
in Congress, was chosen as temporary chairman. He said : 
" The termination of democratic rule in tliis country was the 
end of the peaceful relations between the States and the people. 
The men now in authority, through a feud whicli they have 
long maintained with violent and unwise men at the South, 
because of a blind fanaticism about an institution in some of 
the States, in relation to M-hich they have no duties to perform 
and no responsibilities to bear, are utterly incapable of adopt- 
ing the proper means to rescue our country from its present 
lamentable condition." 

Tlie Convention was permanently organized by appointing 
as chairman, Horatio Seymour, the Governor of 'New York. 
In his speecli, upon assuming the chair, he inveighed bitterly 
against the Lincoln Administration and the party in power. 
" They were," he said, " animated by intolerance and fanati- 
cism, and blinded by an ignorance of the spirit of our institu- 
tions, the character of our people, and the condition of our 
land. Step by step they liave marched on to results from 
which at the onset they would have shrunk with horror; and 
even now, when war has desolated our land, has laid its heavy 
burdens upon labor, and, when bankrnprcy and ruin overliang 
us, they will not have the Union restored unless upon condi- 



TO THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

tions unknown to tlie Constitution. They will not let the 
shedding of blood cease, even for a little time) to see if Chris- 
tian charity, or the wisdom of statesmanship, may not woi'k 
out a method to save our country. They will not even listen 
to a proposal for peace which does not offer what this Govern- 
ment has no right to ask. This Administration cannot now 
save the country if it would. It has placed obstacles in its 
pathway which it cannot overcome. It has hampered its own 
freedom of action by unconstitutionalities." " The failure of 
the policy of the Administration," he said, " was not due to 
any want of courage or devotion on the part of the soldiers : 
they had done all that arms could do ; and had wise states- 
manship secured the fruits of their victories, there would to-day 
have been peace in the land." "This Administration," he 
continued, " cannot save the Union. We can. We demand 
no conditions for the restoration of the Union. We are 
shackled with no hates, no prejudices, no passions. We wish 
for fraternal relations with the people of the South. We de- 
mand for them what we demand for ourselves, the full recog- 
nition of the rights of the States." 

The platform of the Convention consisted of a series of six 
resolutions drawn up by a committee appointed for that pur- 
pose, consisting of one member from each State, chosen by the 
respective delegations. The two most important resolutions 
were as follows : 

■' Resolved, TTiat this Convention does explicitly declare, as tlie sense of tlie 
American people, that after four years of failure to restore the Union by the 
experiment of war, during which, under the pretence of a military necessity, 
or war power higher than the Constitution, the Constitution itself has been 
disregarded in every part, and public liberty and private right alike trodden 
doAvn, and the material prosperity of the country essentially impaired, justice, 
humanity, liberty, and the public welfare demand that immediate efforts be 
made for a cessation of hostilities, with a view to an ultimate convention of 
all the States, or other peaceable me8,ns, to the end that, at the earliest practi- 
cable moment, peace may be restored on the basis of the federal Union of the 
States." 

" Resolved, That the aim and object of the Democratic party is to preserve 
the Federal Union and the rights of the States unimpaired, and they hereby 
declare that they consider the administrative usurpation of extraordinary and 
dangerous powers not granted by the Constitution, the subversion of the civil 
by military law in States not in insurrection, the arbitrary military arrest, im- 
prisonment, trial, and sentence of American citizens in States where civil lavsr 
exists in full force, the suppression of freedom of speech and of the press, the 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 71 

denial of the right of asylum, the open and avowed disregard of State rights, 
the employment of unusual test-oaths, and the interference with and denial of 
the right of the people to bear arms, as calculated to prevent a restoration of 
the Union, and the perpetuation of a government deriving its just powers from 
the consent of the governed." 

The platform was adopted with- but four dissenting votes. 

On the 31st the Convention proceeded to ballot for candi- 
dates. Governor Seymour, of iSTew York, j^ereniptorily refused 
to allow his name to be used. The vote at first stood one 
hundred and sixty-two for McClellan, and sixty-four for all 
others. Several delegations then changed their votes, and the 
result was two hundred and two and a half for George B. Mc- 
Clellan, and twenty-three and a half for Thomas H. Seymour. 
Delaware and Marjdand voted for Seymour, who also received 
nearly half the votes of Ohio, Indiana, and Missouri. The re- 
maining eighteen States voted unanimously for McClellan, 
whose nomination, on motion of Mr. Yallandigham, was made 
unanimous. 

Despite the protestations of attachment to the Union by the 
Chicago Convention, there is but little doubt that the real pro- 
gramme of its operations had, for its final conclusion, the ac- 
knowledgment of the independence of the Confederate States. 

It was proposed, perhaps, to get to this conclusion by distinct 
and successive steps, so as not to alarm too much the Union 
sentiment of the country. The first step was to be the propo- 
sition of the " Union as it was," in a convention of the States ; 
if that was voted down, then the proposition of a new princi- 
ple of federation, limited to the foreign relations and to the 
revenue ; if that was rejected, then the proposition of an Inter- 
Confederate Union, to preserve, as far as possible, by an extra- 
ordinary league, the American prestige ; and, if all these prop- 
ositions, intended as successive tests of the spirit of the South, 
were to fail, then, at last, the independence of the Confederate 
States, made ihQsine qua non, was to be conceded by the Dem- 
ocratic party of the North, as the last resort of pacification, 
and the one of two alternatires where their choice could no 
longer hesitate. In short, it appeared to be the design of the 
Democratic party to get the North on the naked issue of war 
and separation. 

Why this programme broke down is explained almost in a 



72 THE LAST YEAR OF 'JHE WAE. 

^ word. Tlic militaiy events wliicli took place between the date 
of the Chicago Convention and election-day put upon the war 
a more encouraging aspect for the ]S"orth, and with these 
changes the Democratic party abandoned ground which they 
took professedly on principle, but really on the mean consid- 
erations of expediency and time-serving. The fact was that 
all party changes in the North, since the war, might be said 
to be constantly accommodating themselves to the course of 
military events ; so little was there of virtue or of principle in 
the public opinion of the Yankee. After the Chicago Conven- 
tion, the peace party moved inversely with the scale of military 
success ; and, as tiiat mounted in Northern opinion, it fell until, 
as we shall see months later, it almost approached zero. 

It was to be expected, by those acquainted with the true 
springs of action in Yankee politics, that the changes in the 
military situation, during the fall mouths of 1S64, to the ad- 
vantage of the North, would induce the Democratic party and 
their candidate, McClellan, to swerve from the resolutions of 
the Chicago Convention, and to adopt shifting and equivocal 
grounds with reference to the war. This shameful departure 
from the former professions and recorded principles of the so- 
called Democratic party of the North was the occasion of the 
secession of tluit portion of it which, declaring for peace on 
principle and disdaining time-serving, attempted the organiza- 
tion of a peace j^arty upon " State Rights Jeffersonian Demo- 
cratic principles." A convention of the true " peace men" 
was called at Cincinnati on the 18th of October. It nominated 
no candidates ; its actual political influence had become very 
small ; but it had the merit of placing on record one of the 
most perspicuous and complete expositions of the Amei-ican 
system of government that had ever come from any n:todern 
pen. As a reaffirmation of the old and true doctrine of that 
once great organization in America known as the Democratic 
party, applied to the conduct of the existing war, the platform 
of the Cincinnati Convention has a noble and permanent in- 
terest ; it deserves to be studied, both as a declaration of states- 
manship and as a piece of history. There was scarcely any 
thing that could exceed in luminous, compact, and forcible 
style the two following resolutions of this body : 

" 1. Resolved^ That the several States composing the United 



THE LAST YEAK OF THE WAE. 73 

States are not united on the principle of unlimited submission 
to their General Government, but that by a compact, under the 
style and title of a Constitution for the United States, and of 
amendments thereto, they constituted a General Government 
for special purposes — delegated to the Government certain 
definite powers, reserving each State to itself the residuary 
mass of right to tlieir self-government ; and that whenever the 
General Government assumes undelegated power, its acts are 
unauthoritative, void, and of no force ; that to this compact 
each State acceded as a State, and as an integral party, its co- 
States forming, as to itself, the other party ; that the Govern- 
ment created by this compact was not made the exclusive or 
final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself, since 
that would have made its discretion, and not the Constitution, 
the measure of its powers ; but that, as in all other cases of 
compact among powers having no common judge, each party 
has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as 
of the mode and measure of redress. 

"2. Hesolved, Tha^t as Jefferson made the rugged issue of 
doctrine with Adams, so must we make it with the Federal 
Administration, if we would resist efi:*ectually the infinitely 
greater dangers which surround us. We do, consequently, 
declare the wak wholly unconstitutional, and on that ground 
we hold it should be stopped. If a majority of the copartner- 
ship States can retain a member by force, they may expel one 
by force, which has not yet been pretended by anybod}'. The 
Federal agency at Washington, backed up by a majority of 
tlie States in Congress, without right, in the vain attempt to 
subjugate the minority of the Status, is destroying their liberty, 
and crushing the federal system to atoms by thus attacking 
the Constitution. The Administration, and that majority, are 
the real enemies of the Union, which cannot and ought not to 
exist after its conditions are destroyed. The Chicago platform, 
and General McClellan and his war-record letter, which he has 
laid over it, must all be repudiated by Democrats for the same 
reason. If \vc admit that the war is constitutional, we must 
not murmur at the monstrous abuses which attend it, for they 
all naturally grow out of the original atrocity. 

"The evils of paper money, of a protective tariff, of the public 
debt; the military draft; the military governors ; the arbitrary 



Y4: THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

arrests ; the provost-marslials ; the fifteen bastiles ; the drum- 
head courts-martial ; the bayonet elections ; the padlocked lips ; 
the fettered press ; the wholesale confiscation ; the constructive 
treason ; our immense armies and navies, are mere incidents of 
the war itself; and so are President Lincoln's futile proclama- 
tions of slave emancipation, and his general amnesties. Half 
truths and narrow issues have been the bane of Democracy for 
many years, and they have so contracted the minds and hearts 
of Democrats, that all sense of justice, and all knowledge of 
constitutional law which sat there so long enthroned, have de- 
parted, and left us an easy prey to the violence of President 
Lincoln's Administration, and to corrupt managers of our own 
part}^ in State and national conventions." 

We shall not undertake here to follow the course, or enu- 
merate the details of the Presidential campaign of 1864. "We 
may anticipate our narrative generally to say, that that cam- 
paign resulted in the signal triumph of fanaticism and violence 
in the North, and in the election of Abraham Lincoln by the 
vote of every Northern State except Delaware, Kentucky, and 
JSTew Jersey. 

THE RIVAL ADMINISTRATIONS AT RICHMOND AND WASHINGTON. 

A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF NORTHERN DESPOTISM. 

While on political subjects in the war, it will not be amiss 
here to put in comparison the internal administrations of the 
rival governments at Washington and Richmond. We have, 
on other occasions, developed some points of this comparison. 
It is fruitful of many considerations ; it is after all the mobt 
interesting inquiry in the war ; and it comes up naturally and 
conveniently for another review at the date of the Northern 
election which approved Mr. Lincoln's policy, and bestowed 
upon him a second term of ofiice. 

There were many persons to be found in the North, who, 
admitting the rapid decline, since the commencement of the 
war, of their government to despotism, attempted a consola- 
tion by the assertion thai: a similar lapse of liberty had taken 
place in the Confederate States. This opinion obtained to a 
remarkable extent, even among those who were not unfriendly 
to the South, and certainly were not disposed to do her in- 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAK. 75 

justice. It is to be largely ascribed to the very prevalent 
ignorance in the North, even among men otherwise well in- 
formed and intelligent, of the internal policy of the Confed- 
erate States, and of the true spirit of their peculiar legislation 
with reference to the war. It was not only the Black Repub- 
lican party that circulated the idea of an iron-handed tyranny 
in the Confederate States ; but that idea was admitted to a 
large extent in the minds of those who were disposed to think 
well of the Southern experiment, but were not proof against 
the impressions derived from such peremptory laws as required 
men to take up arms in mass, to devote certain property to the 
government, and to hold themselves, generally, in subjection 
to the necessities of the war. These measures wore the ap- 
pearance of the machinery of despotism to them, simply be- 
cause they did yot understand their true nature; while they 
added to their ignorance the mistake of viewing them from a 
stand-point which put the I^orth and the South in the same 
circumstances. 

It is quite true that the conscription and impressment laws 
of the Confederacy were apparently harsh measures. Yet 
there is something to be said of them beyond the justification 
of necessity ; and this is, that they were really nothing more 
than the organized expressions of the poimlar devotion of the 
South in the war ; intended only to give effect and uniformity 
to it. They were not instances of violent legislation imposed 
upon the people ; they were merely the formulas of willing 
and patriotic contributions of men and means to a war, in 
which not only a nation fought for its very existence, but each 
individual for the practical stake of his own fortune. It was 
difficult to make Northern men understand this : that, while 
they had a mortal terror of the draft and other demands of 
the war, the people of the South were cheerfully willing to 
take up arms, and to devote their substance to the government. 
It is thus that the conscription and impressment laws, which, 
in the North, would have been the essence of despotism, were 
really in the South not edicts of violence, but mere conven- 
tionalisms of the war, through which the patriotism of the 
people acted with efiect and regularity. 

But, beyond these laws, even the appearance of despotism 
stopped in the Southern Confederacy. We have only to com- 



T6 THE LAST YKAR OF THE WAR. 

pare the established routine there with what was constantly 
observed in the North, to show how divergent, since the first 
gun was fired at Fort Sumter, had been the histories of the 
belligerents on all questions affecting political and civil liberty. 
There were no military governors in the Confederacy ; there 
was no martial law there ; there was, properly called, no po- 
litical police there — the police establishment being limited to a 
mere detective force to apprehend, in the communities in which 
they were placed, spies and emissaries of the enemy. At uo 
time in the war had soldiers ever been placed at a polling- 
place in the Confederacy ; at no time had newspapers ever 
been suppressed ; and at no time had a single instance of arbi- 
trar}^ arrest, or of imprisonment without distinct charges and 
the opportunity to reply, occurred within the Confederate ju- 
risdiction. These are facts which carry their own comment on 
the base reflection that in the war the South had declined, 
along with the liortli, in its civil administration, and had kept 
company with it on its road to despotism. 

When we sj^eak of the despotis^n at Washington, we do not 
design a figure or an exaggeration of rhetoric. We merely 
name a clearly defined species of human government, as we 
would any other fact in history. The Presidential election of 
186i gave occasion for a full review of the acts of the Wash- 
ington authorities. We may sum up that review in some 
brief paragraphs, dividing it into two branches : First, Mr. 
Lincoln's unconstitutional course on the rights of the States on 
the slavery question ; second, his course on the rights of his 
own people in all matters of civil liberty ; — these two classes of 
outrage being a convenient division of his Administration, 
viewed both as to its intentions upon the South and its effects 
npon the North. 

As to the slavery question, it is only necessary to state the 
record. 

1. The convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln Pres- 
ident of the United States in 1860, passed a resolution affirm- 
ing " the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and 
esjyecially the right of each State to order and control its own 
domestic institutions according to its own jadgraent exclusively P 

2. Mr. Lincoln, in his inaugural of March, 1861, inserted 
this resolution at length, and declared that to him it would be 



THE LAST YKAE OF THE WAR. 77 

" a law," and added, "I now reiterate these sentiments ;" and 
" in doing so, I only press upon the public attention the most 
conclusive evidence of which the case is susceptihle, that the 
propei'ty, peace ^ and security of no section are not to he in any- 
wise endangered hy the now in-coming administration y In the 
same State paper he had before said, quoting approvingly from 
one of his own speeches, " I have no purpose, directly or indi- 
rectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States 
where it now exists ;" and subjoined, "/ believe I have no law- 
ful right to do so, and T have no inclination to do so.^^ 

3. In Secretary Seward's famous letter to the minister of the 
United States, resident at Paris, designed as a diplomatic cir- 
cular to the European courts, and written " by direction of the 
President," occurs the following paragraph : " The condition 
of slavery in the several States will remain just the same, 
whether it (' the rebellion') succeeds or fails. The rights of the 
States, and the condition of every human being in them, will 
remain subject to exactly the same laws and forms of adminis- 
tration, whether the revolution shall succeed, or whether it shall 
fail. Their constitutions, and laws, and customs, habits and 
institutions, in either case, will remain the same. It is hardly 
necessary to add, to this incontestable statement, the further 
fact that the new President, as well as the citizens through 
wdiose suffrages he has come into the administration, has 
always repudiated all designs whatever, and wherever imputed 
to him and them, of distui'lmig the system of slavery as it is 
existing tinder the Constitution and the laws. The case, how- 
ever, would not be fully presented were I to omit to say that 
any such effort on his part would be unconstitutional, and all 
his acts in that direction would be prevented by the judicial 
authorities, even though they were assented to by Congress 
and the people." 

4. In his message to Congress of the 6th of March, 1862, 
known as his emancipation message, after recommending to 
that body that they should pass a resolution that the United 
States ought to co-operate with the States by means of pecuni- 
ary aid in effecting the gradual abolishment of slavery, Mr. 
Lincoln expressly disavowed, for the Government, any author- 
ity over the subjeci, except with State assent. His language 
was, that his proposition " sets up no claim of a right, by Fed- 



^O THE LAST TEAK OF THE WAE. 

eral aiitliority, to interfere with slavery within State limits, 
referring, as it does, tlie absolute control of the sulgect in 
each case to the State, and its people immediately interested." 

5. The act of Congress of the 6th of August, 1861, emanci- 
pated only the slaves of " rebels" employed in the " rebellion," 
and submitted the decision of such cases exclusively to the 
courts. Major-General Fremont, on the 30th of that month, 
being then in command in Missouri, by proclamation declared 
free all the slaves within the State. This, as soon as it came 
to Mr. Lincoln's knowledge, he disapproved, and declared it, 
in a formal order of 11th of September, to be void as far as it 
transcended the provisions of the act of Congress. And in a 
letter of Mr. Joseph Holt to President Lincoln, of the 22d of 
the month, that person, being alarmed for the effect of Fre- 
mont's order, stated that " the act of Congress was believed to 
embody the conservative policy of your administration." This 
statement Mr. Lincoln ^never denied. 

6. On the 9th of May, 1862, Major-General Hunter, military 
commander of the department of the South, embracing Geor- 
gia, Florida, and South Carolina, by an order of that date, 
declared all slaves within such States free. On the 19th of the 
month, even before he was officially advised of the measure, 
Mr. Lincoln, by proclamation, declared tlie same " whether 
genuine or false," to be " altogether void." In neither of 
these instances was there the slightest intimation of a change 
of opinion by Mr. LincoLn, either on the question of policy or 
of power. As to both, he then entertained the same opinion 
that he had announced in his inaugural. 

7. On the 22d of July, 1862, Mr. Crittenden proposed, in the 
House of Representatives at Washington, a resolution which, 
after stating that the war was " forced upon the country by 
the disunionists" of the Southern States, declared that it " is 
not waged, on our part, in any spirit of oppression, or for any 
purpose of conquest or subjugation, or purpose of overthrowing 
or interfering with the rights of the established institution of 
these States (the seceded), but to defend and maintain the su- 
jDremacy of the Constitution and the rights of the several 
States unimpaired ; and that as soon as these objects are accom- 
plished the war ought to cease." In the House only two votes 
were cast against it, and in the Senate but one Republican 



THE LAST YEAK OF THE WAK. T9 

vote, and it was at once and without hesitation approved by 
the President. No pretence was here suggested that slavery 
was to be abolished, or that any of the rights of the States in 
regard to it were to be interfered with. 

Yet, in tlie face of all this accumulation of precedents, we 
find Emancipation proclamations put forward under the claim 
of executive power — the first on the 22d of September, 1862, 
and the second on the first day of the succeeding year. In the 
last, all slaves in certain States or parts of States were declared 
free : it mattered not whether the territory or the slaves should 
fall within the military occnpation of the United States or 
not. 

But it has been said that the emancipation proclamation was 
a military measure^ and to be justified as such from necessities 
outside of the Constitution. It is difficult to find patience to 
reply to such nonsense. The plea is the most absurd stufi' 
that was ever put in the mouth of fool or knave, to brazen out 
against the good sense and conscience of the world his fraud 
and outrage. Absurd, because we know, and all the world 
knows, that it was at the dictation and under the influence of 
a purel}^ political party that the emancipation proclamation 
was issued by Mr. Lincoln. Absurd, because we knew, and 
had had recent assurance from Mr. Lincoln himself, that he 
did not intend emancipation of the negro to end with the war, 
which it would do ipso facto if a mere military measure, but 
had made the abandonment or extirpation of slavery the pre- 
liminary condition for peace, and thus, therefore, a primary 
object of the war. 

It was this same dogma of " military necessitj'," applied to 
the slavery question, that Mr. Lincoln had used to fasten upon 
the necks of the white citizens of the North a heavy yoke of 
intolerance. It was only necessary to look upon what was 
every day passing before the eyes. 

There was seen this despotism in the unreasonable searches 
and seizures of persons and papers, in direct violation of the 
Constitution. 

It was seen in arrests of obnoxious individuals, and their 
imprisonment without warrant or charges preferred, and in 
some instances cut off from all communication with family, 
friends, or counsel. 



80 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

It was seen in the suppression of newspapers, and wanton 
arrest of editors. 

It was seen in the assnmption, by the President, of the 
power to regulate the riglit of suffrage in the States, and estab- 
lish minority and aristocratic governments under the pretext 
of guaranteeing republican governments. 

These are not fancy sketches, or the exaggerations of a nar- 
rative written with passion. It was notorious that such things 
had occurred in Missonri, Indiana, "West Virginia, Maryland, 
Delaware, and New York ; and yet even to question their le- 
gality was deemed disloyal, and men who maintained their 
inherited freedom in doing so, were designated by scurrilous 
abuse, and threatened with the penalties of a despot's all-pow- 
erful displeasure. 

To compare the falsehoods and crimes of the Washington 
record with that rigor of measures in the Confederacy, which 
was really nothing more than the logical incident and the 
proper expression of resolute patriotism, is an outrage upon 
history. The noble memorials of self-sacrificing patriotism are 
very different from the scarlet record of ruthless despotism. 



THE LAST TEAK OF THE WAR. 81 



CHAPTER V. 

The business of blockade-running. — Its risks. — Interesting statistics. — Value of the 
port of Mobile. — Naval Fight and Captuke of the Forts in Mobile Bay. — A 
frightful disparity of force. — Heroic fight of the ram Tennessee. — Absurd boasts 
of the Yankees. — Surrender of Fort Gaines. — Fall of Fort Morgan. — The Georgia 
Campaign. — Its importance. — Johnston's situation at Atlanta. — His removal by 
President Davis. — A fatal error. — Lieutenant-General Hood. — The Battles of 
Atlanta. — The Fall of " the Gate City." — Eeckless and desperate fighting — 
Yankee raid on the Macon road. — Hood's " magnificent advance." — Bombard- 
ment of Atlanta. — Hood's fatal mistake. — Sherman's new movement. — He "cuts 
the Confederates in two." — The Yankees in Atlanta. — Sherman's cruelties.- — His 
depopulation of Atlanta. — Enormity of the order. — Sherman as a pacificator. — 
Governor Brown's letter. — Position of Vice-President Stephens. — Effects of the 
fall of Atlanta. — President Davis's Macon speech. — Its swollen tone. — Captdre of 
THE Confederate Privateer Florida. — Its cowardice and outrage. — Yankee idea 
of glory. — The Destruction of the Confederate Eam Albemarle. — Yankee es- 
timation of the exploit. — The North Carolina Sounds. — The St. Albans Kaid. — 
Stories of the savage vengeance of the Confederates. — How much truth there was in 
them. 

A LARGE capital in the Confederacy was engaged in running 
the blockade. The risks of this business were by no means so 
great as generally supposed ; and it had made a steady and 
valuable contribution to the war. The London insurance 
offices had been in the habit of charging sixty per cent, pre- 
mium for policies on vessels and goods running the blockade. 
This was a rate adopted at the beginning of the war, before 
any facts had been developed to establish the real average of 
risk. But persons engaged in the business soon found that 
the real risk was by no means commensurate with the nominal 
risk as established by the London offices, and they conse- 
quently ceased to insure ; or, in other words, adopted the plan 
of being their own insurers. This is naturally the case when 
the true risk is much below the nominal i-isk. That such was 
the case in the blockade-running business was clear from the 
fact that those engaged in it no longer insured. 

A correspondent of the London Index gave a list of vessels 
employed in running the blockade from the port of Nassau, 
between November, 1861, and March 10, 1864. The list com- 



82 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAE. 

prised eiglitj-fuur vessels. Of these, thirtj-seven had been 
captured, twenty-five had been lost or beached, one foundered 
at sea, one condemned, two converted into Confederate gun- 
boats, and the rest were supposed to be still in the business or 
laid up. The total number of losses which can be ascribed to 
causes connected with blockade-running was sixty-two. Tlie 
number of successful round trips made by these vessels was 
two hundred and fourteen. Thus the risk to the vessels on the 
round trip was twenty-nine per cent. The percentage on 
goods was not by any means so great. If the risks out and in 
had been equal, it would have been fourteen and a half per 
cent, each way. But the inward risk was much greater than 
the outward. We are perhaps justified in assuming, on the 
whole, that the real risk on goods imported into the Confederacy 
through the blockade was not higher than twenty per cent. 

Mobile was one of the principal ports for the blockade-run- 
ning trade. It was guarded at its entrance by two imposing 
fortifications; it was difficult to blockade ; it was a nursery of 
the Confederate navy ; and vessels were already being con- 
structed there with a view of raising the blockade. It had 
been the steady purpose of the Yankees to get possession of 
Mobile Ba_y as soon as operations on the Mississippi would per- 
mit the detachment of a sufficient co-operating military force 
for the expedition. 



NAVAL FIGHT AND CAPTURE OF THE FORTS IN MOBILE BAY. 

In the early part of August, Admiral Farragut, who com- 
manded the Yankee fleet off Mobile, secured the military co- 
operation of General Canby for attacking and investing the 
forts in the harbor of Mobile. On the morning of the 5th 
of August, the Yankee fleet, numbering fourteen steamers and 
four monitors, carrying in all more than two hundred guns, 
and manned by twenty-eight hundred men, made their entree 
into Mobile Bay. The entire Confederate naval force that was 
to encounter this huge armada was composed of one iron-clad 
and three wooden vessels. Such was the frightful disparity of 
force in a fight which the Yankees afterwards claimed to take 
rank with the victories of Nelson ! 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR, 83 

In the early light of the morning the attacking fleet moved 
steadily up the main ship channel, when Fort Morgan opened 
upon them, and was replied to by a gun from the Brooklyn. 
A moment later, and the Yankee iron-clad Tecumseh, struck 
by a torpedo, disappeared instantaneously beneath the waves, 
carrying with her her commander, T. A. M. Craven, and nearly 
all her crew. The Yankee flag-ship Hartford now took the 
lead, and had scarcely passed the fort, when the Confederate 
ram Tennessee dashed out at her. The three Confederate 
gunboats, the Morgan, the Gaines, and the Selma, were ahead. 
After a desperate struggle between the fleets, the Gaines re- 
tired to Fort Morgan in a sinking condition ; the Selma, cut 
off, surrendered ; and the Morgan escaped to Fort Morgan. 

Having passed the forts and dispersed the gunboats, Farra- 
gut ordered most of the vessels to anchor, when about nine 
o'clock he perceived the Confederate ram Tennessee standing 
up for the Hartford. He immediately ordered all the Yankee 
monitors, and such of his wooden ships as were adapted for the 
purpose, to attack the ram, not only with their guns, but bows 
on at full speed. And then began one of the most remarkable 
naval conflicts of the war. A single vessel was beset by a 
whole fleet. She was struck three times, and as the Hartford, 
the third vessel which struck her, rasped along her side, the 
Yankee poured a whole broadside of niue-inch solid shot within 
ten feet of her casement. The Chickasaw was pounding away 
at her stern ; the Hartford and three others of the fleet were 
again heaving down upon her, determined upon her destruc- 
tion ; her smoke-stack had been shot away, her steering chains 
were gone, and she lay at the mercy of the enemy. It was 
not until resistance was hopeless that Admiral Buchanan, him- 
self wounded on the Tennessee, surrendered the vessel, and 
ordered the white flag to be hoisted just as she was about be- 
ing struck by the vessels converging upon her, and when she 
was already disabled, and her crew almost in a smothering 
condition. 

Such was the naval fight in Mobile Bay, which the Yankees 
ranked among their most brilliant victories ; exalting Farragut 
above Nelson; apostrophizing their hero after the modern 
New York fashion of big dinners, and having hired poets to 
recite to him in public " masterly ballads." The Confederates 



84: TIIK LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

had a very different and very plain estimation of the affaii*. 
Their loss in killed and wounded had been only twenty-two. 
That of the enemy was near three hundred, not including the 
one hundred and twenty-three who went down in the Te- 
cumseh. The Richmond Examiner gave a list of the twenty- 
eight Yankee vessels engaged, having two hundred and twelve 
guns, with the four Confederates having twenty -two guns. It 
said : " It was a most unequal contest in which our gallant 
little navy was engaged ; and we lost the battle, but our ensign 
went down in a blaze of glory." 

But although our little fleet in the bay of Mobile had been 
destroyed or dispersed, the forts were still held, and the 
Yankee success was incomplete. The fall of these, however, 
was to follow unexpectedly to the South, and not without sotne 
circumstances of humiliation. 

On the 6th of August, one of the Yankee iron-clads com- 
menced shelling Fort Gaines. This was a powerful work ; it 
was provisioned for six months, and had a garrison of 600 
men. Colonel Anderson, in command, communicated with 
the enemy's fleet by flag of truce, without the sanction of Gen- 
eral Page, who was in command at Fort Morgan. General 
Page inquired by signals what his purpose was, but received 
no answer. His attention was attracted by signal-guns. Gen- 
eral Page repeatedly telegraphed, " Hold on to your fort." 
The same night he visited Fort Gaines, and found Anderson 
on board the Yankee fleet, arranging terms of capitulation. 
He left peremptory orders for Anderson, on his return, not to 
surrender the fort, and relieved him of his command. Fort 
Morgan signalled the next morning, but no answer was re- 
ceived, except the hoisting of the Yankee flag over the ram- 
parts of Fort Gaines. 

From this time onward, movements of the enemy were in 
progress for capturing Fort Morgan ; and on the 22d of August, 
at day-dawn, a bombardment was opened from the shore bat- 
teries, the monitors and ships inside, and the vessels outside 
the bay. At 6 a. m. of the 23d, a white flag was displayed by 
the Confederates, and at 2 o'clock p. m. the fort was surren- 
dered. 

Fort Powell had been already attacked on the night of the 
5th, and blown up, the guns falling into the enemy's hands. 



THE LAST YEAK OF THE WAR. 85 

The capture of Forts Powell, Gaines, and Morgan, and the 
destruction of the Confederate fleet, gave the Yankees posses- 
sion of the bay, and closed the port to all ingress or egress of 
blockade-runners. The city of Mobile was still in possession 
of the Confederates, and months were to elapse before the ene- 
my were to make any demonstration upon it, and then only 
with the co-operation of a land force. The Yankee success, so 
far, although the occasion of a brief blaze of excitement in the 
North, was not of any great importance ; and it had been 
dearly purchased. 



THE GEORGIA CAMPAIGN. 

We return to more important events — those of the Georgia 
campaign — which indeed were to put a new aspect on the 
war ; to annihilate the peace party in the North ; to give a 
new hope and impetus to the enemy ; and to date the serious 
and rapid decline of the fortunes of the Confederacy. 

When we last left off the story of this campaign, Johnston 
was holding Atlanta, and busied in strengthening its defences.* 
His position in Atlanta w^as not less secure than that of Lee 
in Petersburg; and judging prospective by past events, it was 
impossible to doubt that he would have held Sherman as well 
as Lee held Grant. He could at least have done that ; and if 
he succeeded in destroying his land communications — very 
much more easy to reach than that of Grant over water — he 
might have forced the enemy into disastrous retreat on Ten- 
nessee. 

At midsummer, therefore, the two campaigns, for which the 
enemy had surrendered the Trans-Mississippi and North Caro- 
lina, were both failures. That military success which would 

* In an official report, General Johnston said : " The proofs that I intended 
to hold Atlanta are, the fact that under my orders the work of strengthening 
its defences was going on vigorouslj', the communication on the subject made 
by me to General Hood, and the fact that my family was in the town. That 
the public workshops were removed, and no large supplies deposited in the 
town, as alleged by General Bragg, were measures of common prudence, and 
no more indicated the intention to abandon the place than the sending the 
wagons of an army to the rear, on a day of battle, proves a foregone determin- 
ation to abandon the field." 



86 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAK. 

alone bring him money, and by which alone could the Lincoln 
government retain power, was not forthcoming, or even dimly 
visible in the future. Had the campaign of Georgia pursued 
its parallel with that of Virginia, McClellan or some other man 
capable of negotiation would have been elected, and perhaps 
an honorable peace could have been attained. If no peace, at 
least the invasion would have lost its venom with its hope — 
the enemy would be a bankrupt, his army impotent, and his 
people indisposed to further exactions. 

These bright prospects were changed in a day. President 
Davis, moved not so much by popular clamor as by a persist- 
ent personal dislike of Johnston, who resented his catechising 
interference with his campaign, took occasion to remove from 
the command of what had become the most important army 
in the Confederacy a first-rate military man, who had never 
lost a battle or a regiment in his whole career; who was exe- 
cuting the masterpiece of his professional life with a perfection 
of design and detail which delighted his own troops and filled 
his adversary with involuntary admiration ; who had done the 
wonderful thing of conducting an army in retreat over threo 
hundred miles of intricate country, absolutely without any 
loss in material or prisoners. Johnston was removed, and 
Lieutenant-General Hood put in command of the army — Pres- 
ident Davis declaring that if the people wanted " a fighting 
general" they should have such in this man, wdio was brave, 
headstrong, incompetent ; who had the heart of a lion, but, 
unfortunately, with it a head of wood. 



THE BATTLES OF ATLANTA. THE FALL OF " THE GATE CrrT." 

The efiective force which General Johnston transferred to 
General Hood was about forty-one thousand infantry and ar- 
tillery, and ten thousand cavalry. It constituted one of tho 
largest armies the Confederacy had ever put in a single field, 
and was only a little less numerous than that with which Gen- 
eral Lee had fought the campaign of the Rapidan. 

On the 20th of July, Hood attacked the enemy's right on 
Peach-tree Creek, near the Chattahoochee, gaining some tem- 
porary advantage, and capturing colors and prisoners. 



THE LAST YEAE OF THE WAK. 87 

It was one of the most reckless, massive, and lieadlona; 
charges of the war. A little past three in the evening, and 
with the celerity of lightning, the bulk of Hood's army massed 
in enormous columns against lyewton's division, came on 
without skirmishing, and with yells whose volume exceeded 
any battle-shout that had yet been heard. It was the aim of 
Hood to take advantage of a gap between Newton's division 
and another division of Palmer's corps, to strike the enemy at 
a vital point, and to destroy his forces on the right. The 
charge was gallantly led by Walker's and Bates' divisions of 
Hardee's corps. The column poured down an open but rocky 
series of fields towards ISTewton's left, evidently aiming at his 
bridges. At this point, however, the enemy succeeded, with 
admirable quickness, in massing their artillery, and pouring a 
terrible fire upon the Confederates. The Yankee gunners 
worked with frantic energy ; the Confederate columns slack- 
ened pace, and began to waver and lose their careful arrange- 
ment ; and in less than half an hour the attack was drawn off 
in good order, but having plainly and uncpiestionably failed to 
accomplish its object. 

On the 22d of Jnly, Hood's army shifted its position, form- 
ing on Peach-tree Creek, and Stewart's and Cheatham's corps 
formed line of battle around the city. Hardee's corps made a 
night march, and attacked the enemy's extreme left at one 
o^clock on the 22d, and drove him from his works, capturing 
sixteen pieces of artillery and five stands of colors. Cheatham 
attacked the enemy at four o'clock in the afternoon with a 
portion of his command, and drove the enemy, capturing six 
pieces of artillery. During the engagement we captured about 
two thousand prisoners- 
After the battle of the 22d, Sherman's army was transferred 
from its position on the east side of Atlanta to the extreme 
right of Hood's army, on the west side, threatening the Macon 
road. He slowly and gradually drew his lines about Atlanta, 
feeling for the railroads which supplied Hood's army and made 
Atlanta a place of importance. 

It remained to break the Macon road. For tliis purpose 
Stoneman was sent with five thousand cavalry, and McCook 
with four thousand men, to meet on the railroad near Lovejoy'a 
and to tear it up, and also to attack and drive Wheelei'. Stone 



88 thf: last year of the war. 

Snan did not go to Lovejoy's. He tore up much of the raih-oad, 
and got down in front of Macon ; and on his retreat was 
hemmed in by Iverson, and was himself captured, together 
with one thousand of his men and two guns, besides losing 
many in killed and wounded. McCook cut his way out, 
losing about five hundred men as prisoners. " On the whole," 
Sherman reported, " the cavalry raid is not deemed a suc- 
cess." 

On the 28th of July, Hood made another grand attack on 
Sherman. Coming out of Atlanta by the Bell's Ferry road, 
he advanced in parallel lines directly against the Fifteenth 
Corps, expecting to catch that ilank in air. Of this movement 
General Sherman said: "His advance was magnificent, but 
founded on an error that cost him sadly ; for our men coolly 
and deliberately cut down his men, and, spite of the efforts of 
the rebel officers, his ranks broke and fled. But they were 
rallied again and again, as often as six times at some points ; 
and a few of tlie rebel officers and men reached our lines of 
rail-piles only to be killed or hauled over as prisoners." The 
Yankee accounts claimed a loss on the Confederate side in tiiis 
enofagement of six tliousand men. General Hood stated his 
loss at fifteen hundred killed and wounded. The excellent in- 
trenchments of the Yankees and the skilful formation of tlieir 
lines saved them from any considerable loss, and secured them 
the fortune of the day. 

General Sherman now extended his lines southwestward 
towards East Point, in the hope of drawing the Confedei-ates 
out, from the fear of having their communications severed ; 
but Hood extended liis fortified line accordingly, and refused 
to abandon his works. For several weeks Sherman continued 
the siege of Atlanta, bombarding it with but little effect. He 
had satisfied himself that to take Atlanta he must resort to 
new means, and had concluded to plant his armies away below 
on the Macon road. Hood's main line of supply. The grand 
movement was assigned for the 18th of August. 

But at this time Hood made the fatal mistake. He sent off 
"VVheeler and his entire cavalry to raid on Sherman's line of 
communications. "At last," wrote Sherman, "he made the 
mistake we had waited for so long, and sent his cavalry to our 
rear, far beyond the reach of recall." 




L^CEN. HARDEE. 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE "WAR. S9 

Instantly the Yankee cavalry was on the Macon road. Sher- 
man followed quickly with his principal army. On the 31st 
of August, Howard, on the right, had reached Jonesboro' ; 
Thomas, in the centre, was at Couch's; and Schofield, on the 
left, was near Rough and Ready. 

The Confederate forces were at this time in a most singular 
position. They had been divided into two main armies, sep- 
arated by an interval of twenty-two miles. One part of the 
army was intrenched at Atlanta, and the other was at Jonesboro', 
under General Hardee, and was also intrenched. The cause 
of this separation of the forces arose from the fact that Hood 
had found out, by Kilpatrick's raid, that it was necessary he 
should protect his communications at that point by a large 
force. Sherman's army was therefore between Hood's forces, 
and had literally divided the Confederates in two. 

On the evening of the 30th of August, the enemy made a 
lodgment across Flint River, near Jonesboro'. The Confed- 
erates attacked them there on the evening of the 31st, with two 
corps, but failed to dislodge them. Of this event. General 
Hood telegraphed to Richmond : " This made it necessary to 
abandon Atlanta, which was done on the night of the 1st of 
September." 

On the evening of the 1st of September, General Hardee's 
corps, in position at Jonesboro', v/as assaulted by a superior 
force of the enemy ; and being outflanked, was compelled to 
withdraw during the night, with the loss of eight guns. 

The sum of Hood's disasters was now complete. He had 
remained in Atlanta to find that he was outflanked, his line of 
supply cut ofl", and the Yankee troops between him and a large 
portion of his army. In order to save that portion of his com- 
mand then with him, he determined to evacuate the fortified 
city; and on the night of September 1st he blew up his maga- 
zines, destroyed all his supplies that he could not remove, con- 
sisting of seven locomotives and eighty-one cars loaded with 
ammunition, small-arms, and stores, and left the place by the 
turnpike roads. 

Sherman dispatched to Washington : " Atlanta is ours, and 
fairly won. Since the 5th of May we have been in one con- 
tinued battle or skirmish, and need rest." The pause in mil- 
itary operations afforded him the opportunity of launching 



90 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 

measures of tlie most extraordinary cruelty against the non- 
combatant people of Atlanta. He ordered the entire depopu- 
lation of the city, and proceeded to drive from their homes 
thousands of helpless women and children. General Hood 
protested against the measure as " unprecedented, studied, and 
ungenerous cruelty." Sherman wrote diflt'use replies to him 
and to the Mayor of Atlanta. This Yankee general wrote a 
sort of tangled English, interlarded with slang phrases, which 
the North accepted as a model of forcible and elegant style. 
He replied to Hood, '"' Talk thus to the marines^ and not to ' 
me ;" and gave to the mayor this bit of military philosophy : 
" War is cruelty, and you cannot refine ?'?!." He continued : 
" You might as well appeal against the thunder-storm as against 
these terrible hardships of war. They are inevitable ; and the 
only way the people of Atlanta can hope once more to live in 
peace and quiet at home is to stop this war." 

It appears that the Yankee general had shut his eyes to^ 
every element and law of civilization in war. He ordered 
into exile the whole population of a city, drove men, women, 
and children from their homes at the point of the bayonet, 
under the plea that it was to the interest of his Government, 
and on the claim that it was an act of " kindness to these fam- 
ilies of Atlanta." Butler only banished from New Orleans the 
registered enemies of his Government, and acknowledged that 
he did it as a punishment. Sherman issued a sweeping edict 
covering all the inhabitants of a city, and added insult to the 
injury heaped upon the defenceless by assuming that he had 
done them a kindness. 

Shortly after the fall of Atlanta, it was affirmed that many 
of the leading men of Georgia, including Governor Brown and 
Alexander H. Stephens, were in favor of that State withdraw- 
ing from the Confederacy and making a separate peace ; and 
that negotiations to that effect had been opened with General 
Sherman. The facts were these : A Mr. King had brought to 
Governor Brown a message to the effect that he would be 
pleased to confer with him and others upon the state of the 
country, with a view to a settlement of the difficulties, and 
M'ould give him a pass through the Federal lines, going and 
returning, for that purpose. To this the governor replied, that 
he, as governor of a State, and General Sherman, as a com- 



THE LAST TEAK OF THE WAE. 91 

mander of an army in the field, had no authority to enter upon 
negotiations for peace. Georgia might perhaps be overrun, 
but could not be subjugated, and would never treat with a 
conqueror upon her soil. That while Georgia possessed the 
sovereign power to act separately, her faith had been pledged 
by implication to her Southern sisters, and she would not ex- 
ercise this power without their consent and co-operation. She 
had entered into the contest knowing all the responsibilities 
which it involved, and would never withdraw from it with 
dishonor. " She will never," he says, " make separate terms 
with the enem_y, which may free her territory from invasion 
and leave her confederates in the lurch. Whatever may be 
the opinion of her people as to the injustice done her by the 
Confederate Administration, she will triumph with her con- 
federate sisters, or she will sink with them in common ruin. . . 
The independent expression of condemnation of the measures 
of the Administration is one thing, and disloyalty to our sacred 
cause is another and quite a different thing." " If Mr, Lincoln 
would stop the war, let him," said Governor Brown, " recognize 
the sovereignty of the States, and leave to each to determine 
for herself whether she will return to the old Union or remain 
in her present league." 

About the same time Yice-President Stephens explained his 
own position in an elaborate letter, in which he declared that 
the only solution for present and prospective troubles was " the 
simple recognition of the fundamental principle and truth upon 
which all American constitutional liberty is founded, and upon 
the maintenance of which alone it can be preserved — that is, 
the sovereignty — the ultimate, absolute sovereignty — of the 
States." He concluded : " All questions of boundaries, con- 
federacies, and union or unions would naturally and easily ad- 
just themselves, according to the interests of parties and the 
exigencies of the times. Herein lies the true law of balance 
of the power and the harmony of States." 

The fall of Atlanta was a serious blow to the Confederacy. 
" On that day," said the Eichmond Examiner^ " McClellan's 
nomination fell still-born, and an heir was born to the Abolition 
dynasty. On that day, peace waved those ' white wings,' and 
fled to the ends of the morning. On that day, calculations of the 
war's duration ceased to be the amusements even of the idle." 



92 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR, 

The catastrophe moved President Davis in Eiclnnond. To- 
wards the close of September, he made a journe}^ to Georgia. 
lie delivered an elaborate and ill-tempered speech at Macon. 
lie said that it would have gladdened his heart to have met 
his auditors in prosperity instead of adversity. Still, though 
misfortune had befallen the Confederates from Decatur to 
Jonesboro', the cause was not lost. Sooner or later Sherman 
must retreat, and then he would meet the fate that befell jN^a- 
poleon in the retreat from Moscow. He knew the deep dis- 
grace felt by Georgia at the army falling back from Dal ton to 
tlie interior of the State ; but he was not one who felt that At- 
lanta was lost when the army crossed the Chattahoochee, and 
he had put a man at the head of the army who would strike a 
manly blow for the city. It did not become him to revert to 
disaster. Hood's army must be replenished. He had been 
asked to send reinforcements from Yirginia to Georgia, but 
the disj^arity in numbers was as great in Yirginia as in Georgia. 
The army under Early had been sent to the valley of the Shen- 
andoah, instead of to Georgia, because the enemy had pene- 
trated to Lynchburg; and now, if Early was withdrawn, there 
was nothing to prevent the Federal troops from putting a com- 
plete cordon of men around Richmond. He had counselled 
with General Lee upon all these points ; his mind had roamed 
over the whole field, and his conclusion was, that " if one-half 
of the men now absent from the field would return to duty, 
we can defeat the enemy. With that hope, I am now going 
to the front, I may not realize this hope, but I know that 
there are men there who have looked death too often in the 
face to despond now," 

The swollen tone of the Confederate President was not with- 
out effect upon the public mind. Confidence was in a measure 
revived ; and expectation stood on tiptoe for the results of that 
wonderful strategy which President Davis had counselled with 
Hood, and which he promised his Macon audience was to re- 
cover Atlanta, and bring Sherman to a grief unparalleled in 
the war. The President's vivid hint of such a campaign was 
the occasion of new hopes with some people of the Confederacy. 
But they had forgotten of what ill omen had been his former 
visits to the Western army; how disaster had followed on his 
heels ; and how his former plans of campaign in this depart- 



THE LAST YEAR OF TIIK WAR. 93 

ment, attended with like vapors, had turned ont to be the 
veriest chip-traps in military science. But the sequel of the 
Macon speech belongs to another period of time, and must be 
reserved for another chapter. 

"We turn here, at this period, to the narration of some naval 
and military incidents which belong to it, and which, although 
of uo great importance in themselves, are of considerable in- 
terest, either on account of the principles they involved or the 
spirit they illustrated. 



CAPTURE OF THE CONFEDERATE PRIVATEER FLORIDA. 

The Florida had originally sailed from England under the 
name of Oreto, and under that name she was, on reaching 
Nassau, brought before the court through the efforts of the 
Yankee consul. The neutral authorities decided in favor of 
the vessel, which was permitted to proceed. Leaving Nas- 
sau she went to Green Bay, where she received on board her 
armament, ran into Mobile, changed her name to that of 
Florida, and had since carried on an effective war on Yankee 
commerce. 

In February, 1864, availing herself of a dark niglit, she es- 
caped from Brest, eluding the Kearsarge, which was off tliat 
port. In June, she visited the neutral port of St. Georges, 
Bermuda, and remained there nine days. Leaving St. Geoi'ges 
on the 2Tth of that month, she remained outside, but in sight, 
for thr.ee or four days, boarding all vessels that approached the 
island. On the 10th of July she captured the Electric Spark, 
near the coast, while several vessels were cruizing for iier ; but 
she escaped, and was next heard from at Teneriffe, on the 4tli 
of August. Subsequently she entered the bay of San Salvador, 
Brazil. 

While the Florida was at her anchorage in this neutral port, 
and a portion of her crew, with her commander, were ashore, 
not dreaming of danger. Captain Napoleon Collins, of the 
Yankee steamer Wachusett, had conceived the extraordinary 
and outrageous design of stealing upon the Confederate vessel, 
and destroj^ing or capturing her by a cowardly stratagem in a 
neutral port. 



94 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

About three o'clock in the morning of the 7th of October, 
the cables were slipped, and the Wachusett bore down upon 
the Confederate vessel under a full head of steam. So little ex- 
pectation was there of such a proceeding, that one-half the 
officers and crew of the Florida, seventy in number, and includ- 
ing Captain Morris, were on shore. The Florida's officer on 
deck supposed the collision, which he saw to be imminent, to 
be merely accidental, and cried out : " You will run into us if 
you don't look out." The design of Captain Collins was to 
strike the Florida amidships, with full steam on, crushing her 
side, and send her at once to the bottom. The Wachusett, 
however, did not strike hei- adversary fairly, but hit her in the 
stern, carrying away the mizen-mast and main-yard. The 
Florida was not seriously injured by the collision ; but the 
broken spar fell across the awning over her hatchway in such 
a manner as to prevent her crew from getting on deck from 
below. The recoil which followed the shock carried the Wa- 
.chusett back several yards. In the confusion which ensued, 
several pistol shots were fired from both vessels, chiefly at 
random and entirely without effect. Two of the guns of the 
Wachusett were also discharged, but the shots did not strike 
the Florida. 

Captain Collins, of the Wachusett, immediately called out : 
" Surrender, or I will blow you out of the water !" The lieu- 
tenant in charge of the Florida replied : " Under the circum- 
stances, I surrender." Without the delay of an instant, dozens 
of Yankee sailors boarded the prize, and made fast a hawser, 
connecting her with their own vessel, and the Wachusett 
turned her course seaward, moving at the top of her speed, 
and towing the Florida in her wake. 

The fleet of Brazilian vessels was so situated, that the two 
steamers were obliged to pass under the stern of one of the 
largest in order to penetrate their line. The Wachusett was 
challenged, but did not deign a word of reply, and the Florida, 
when hailed and commanded to halt a moment after, replied 
that a pause was impossible, as she was towed by the vessel in 
front. The Brazilians soon divined the state of affairs, and in 
another moment or two the heavy guns of the fort, under the 
muzzles of which the capture had l3een made, opened fire on 
the Wachusett as she disappeared in the darkness. Three 



THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAK. 95 

sliots were fired after her, all passing harmlessly far above her 
pennant and striking the water. 

To those familiar with the Yankee disposition to misrepre- 
sent and boast, it will not appear strange that this stroke of 
I^apoleon Collins' genius — a piece of cowardice and outrage 
for which Mr. Seward was afterwards compelled to a|)ologize 
to the Brazilian government — should have been generally 
thought, in the North, very commendable and admirable. 
Bat what sliall be said of this sentiment in a New York news- 
paper : " Certainly no page of history can show a tnore daring 
achieveonent, or one executed with more hrilliant rapidity or 
more complete success .^" 



THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CONFEDERATE RAM ALBEMARLE. 

A few weeks later, and another naval exploit of the Yaidcces 
was heralded to tlie })ublic. This was the destruction of the 
formidable ram Albemarle, in the Koanoke River. With four- 
teen officers and men. Lieutenant Gushing, of the Yankee navy, 
on the night of the 27th October, ascended the Koanoke to 
Plymouth, in a torpedo boat, crept upon the ram at her wharf, 
and sunk her by the explosion of the torpedo. 

The exploit was a most dastardly one — a rare exhibition of 
cowardice; for no sooner had the Yankees exploded the Albe- 
marle than, instead of making fight, they cried out, " We sur- 
der, we surrender !" and "while the vessel was sinking, called 
for quarter from those upon whom they had stolen under the 
cover of darkness. 

The Confederates would have been justifiable in dispatching 
these men on the spot. The Yankees had, in more than one 
instance, executed in cold blood members of the torpedo corps 
of the Confederate States ; and when Butler ascended the James 
River, in May, 1864, the story was grimly told in the New 
York papers, that certain torpedo-men captured on that occa- 
sion " would never give any more trouble." But in the case 
of the Albemarle, the Confederates, with characteristic softness 
and simplicity of heart, took and treated as prisoners of war 
the dastardly creatures, whose enterprise had been of no more 
peril than that of the assassin who stabs in the back, and, as 



96 THE LAST YEAE OF THR WAR. 

his victim turns to revenge himself, throws up his hands for 
mercy. 

It is a peculiarity of the Yankee that the success of an in- 
genious device of cowardice is more higlily extolled than any 
exhibition of real courage. ISTo wonder, then, that the affair 
of the Albemarle was exploited as one of the sensations of the 
day ; and that Lieutenant Gushing, the commander of tlie 
Yankee party, was dubbed " hero," and his physiognomy re- 
corded on the first pages of the New York pictorials. 

The destruction of the Albemarle removed the reliable de- 
fence of Plymouth. On the 31st of October the Yankees took 
possession of the place, capturing some prisoners and cannon, 
and re-establishing their supremacy in the sounds of North 
Carolina. 

THE ST. ALBANS RAID. 

In the month of October, a great and undue excitement was 
created in the JSTorth by an expedition of twenty-five Confed- 
erates from the Canadian frontier into the town of St. Albans, 
Vermont. The raid occurred on the 18th of October. The 
banks were robbed of over one hundred thousand dollars, and 
a citizen was shot ; the raiders declaring that they " intended 
retaliation for Sherman's cruelties in Atlanta." They escaped 
across the frontier, but were arrested by the Canadian author- 
ities. The raid was followed by great excitement, and in a 
few hours the whole frontier was under arms. 

The apparent complicity of the Confederate authorities in 
the St. Albans raid furnished the Yankees with the occasion 
of connecting the Government at Richmond with all sorts of 
real and pretended schemes, concocted on the Canadian fron- 
tier, to execute savage justice upon the North. These stories 
are familiar to the world. It was declared on affidavit, on 
different occasions, that Confederate agents, on neutral terri- 
tory, had plotted the burning of Northern cities, the conflagra- 
tion of hotels, the destruction of railroad trains, the infection 
of the Northern people with pestilence, and all manner of sav- 
age and inhuman retribution. 

The slight element of truth in these libels is easily indicated. 
No human creature is more ingenious and industrious in mis- 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAE. 97 

representation than the Yankee ; and his unscrupulous and 
busy attempt to hand down the Confederates to history as a 
savage foe, is to be constantly met in the history of the war. 

It is true that President Davis was a credulous man, and 
very accessible to the claims of foreign adventurers, to the pro- 
positions of " blowers," and the game of " coniidence-men." 
It is quite possible that he .may have given countenance to 
some of these plausible creatures, who afterwards exceeded 
their instructions ; and having been designated for legitimate 
"secret service," assumed, on their own account, the part of 
highwaymen and incendiaries. But it is an incontestable fact 
in history, that the Coufederates, so far from being savage 
avengers, were deficient in the policy and tame in the spirit 
of retaliation ; that they moderated their warfare with an ex- 
cess of chivalry and sentimentalisra that was more than once 
laughed at by the enemy, or seriously censured by the more 
intelligent and just persons of the South; and that in their 
general temper in the war, and its well-attested facts of his- 
tory, they give the conclusive and unmistakable contradiction 
to the multitudinous Yankee stories of " rebel barbarities" in 
the episodes of the war. 

7 



98 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAE. 



CHAPTER Yl. 

The Eichmond lines. — The Fall op Foet Harrison, eto. — The attempt to retake it. 
— Why it failed. — Engagement on the Charles City Koad. — Death of General 
Gregg.— Engagement on the Williamsbukg and Boydton Eoads. — Another 
Grand Attempt on Eichmond. — A shameful failure. — The "electoral necessity" at 
Washington. — The Campaign in the Valley of Virginia. — Early's mission in the 
Valley; — How a part of the combination to protect Eichmcnd.--Sheridan's com- 
mand. — His strategy. — Battle near Winchester. — A critical moment. — The en- 
emy's centre broken. — He recovers. — Misconduct of the Confederate cavalry. — 
Early retreats to Fisher's Hill.^THE Battle of Fisher's Hill. — A most unex- 
pected reverse to the Confederates. — Misgivings and alarm in Eiclimond. — The 
capture of Staunton.- — Sheridan's devastations of the Valley. — "Barn-burning." — 
An affair of Eosser's cavalry. — " Tiie Saviour of the Vnlley.". — Battle of Cedar 
Creek. — Two-thirds of Sheridan's army completely routed. — Early's awkward 
pause. — Plunder of the Yankee camp. — The enemy regains the day. — Shameful 
rout of the Confederates. — The Valley campaign virtually ended. — Southwestern 
Virginia. — Breckinridge's campaign. — The Yankees capture the salt-works a.% 
Saltville. — Destruction of the works. 

The events on the Riclimond lines in the fall mouths of 1864 
were not without importance. 



THE FALL OF FOKT HAERISOIST, ETC. 

Early on the night of the 28th of September it was discov- 
ered that the enemy was crossing a force to the north side of 
the James, at Deep Bottom, and in a few hours developed the 
fact that he was crossing infantry, cavalry, and artillery in 
heavy columns. General Gregg, who was in command at that 
point, after notifying General Ewell of the situation, placed 
two brigades of Field's division in readiness to meet an attack. 

At daybreak on the '29th, our pickets were driven in at sev- 
eral points, showing that a formidable advance was being made, 
and that the force to oppose it was inadequate to cover all the 
ground threatened. The best disposition possible, however, 
was made of the small force present. The first determined as- 
sault w^as made near the Phillips House, on both sides of the 
Four Mile Pun. The Texas brigade was hastened in double- 



THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 99 

quick to that point, and placed in position just in time to repel 
the attack. The enemy, in very heavy force, had reached the 
abattis, thirty or forty yards in front, but were there met by 
a most terrific and galling fire, which mowed them down with 
terrible slaughter. The white troops fled in great confusion, 
but, the entangled brush greatly impeding their speed, many 
of them fell under the fire of the well-aimed rifles of the 
Texans. 

The negroes, who were driven up at the point of the bay- 
onet, lay flat upon the ground, just in rear of the abattis, hop- 
ing thereby to shield themselves from the sad havoc in their 
ranks, but the Texans, mounting the works, shot them like 
sheep led to the shambles. The IS'ew York Herald said one 
Imndred and ninety-four negroes were buried upon that spot. 
Counting the wounded at five times as great, which is a low 
estimate, at least twelve hundred killed and wounded cum- 
bered the ground in front of that little brigade. 

Beaten back at this point, the enemy immediately hurled 
another column of white troops against General Geary, near the 
Drill House, on New Market Heights, and met a like bloody 
repulse. 

Beaten back with terrible slaughter from the heights of New 
Market, the Yankees determined to accomplish, by flank 
movements and overwhelming numbers, what their courage 
failed to do. 

A heavy column moved up the river for the purpose of at- 
tacking the works on Chafiin's farm, while others moved up 
the Darby town and New Market roads. A force of Confederates 
was hastened off in double-quick to reinforce Fort Harrison 
and adjacent works ; but before they could reach them the en- 
emy assaulted the fort, which, after a very feeble resistance on 
the part of the artillery and a portion of Colonel Maury's com- 
mand, was abandoned to the enemy. This fort occupied a 
commanding position below Drury's Blufi", and constituted 
the main defence at that point. 

In the mean time the force that moved up New Market road 
had massed in a ravine on Taylor's fixrm, northwest of Fort 
Gilmer, and were moving in two heavy columns upon it and 
the works to the left. Law's brigade of Field's division (under 
Colonel Bowls), which had just arrived, opened a destructive 



100 THE LAST TEAE OF THE WAK. 

fire on the line advancing upon the works to the left and re- 
pulsed them. The whole force was then hurled, with great im- 
petuosity, against Fort Gilmer. 

The open plateau in front gave the Confederates, in and 
to the left of the fort, an opportunity to pour a galling and 
destructive fire into the enemy's front and flank for several 
hundred yards before they could reach the goal at which they 
aimed. The negroes, as usual, were in front, and rushed for- 
ward frantically, under dread of the bayonets at their backs, 
shooting but seldom, and wide of their mark. Their only 
object seemed to be to gain the ditch, and save themselves 
from slaughter. The white soldiers never reached the ditch. 
They were repulsed, and fell back in confusion. 

The total sum of the day's labor was six battle-flags, two 
guidons, and about five hundred prisoners, besides at least 
seven hundred of the enemy killed, and three thousand five 
hundred wounded. 

General Field arrived just prior to the assault upon Fort 
Gilmer, and, after a careful survey of the situation, favored an 
attack upon Fort Harrison that evening, before the enemy 
could strengthen the position. But his superior officers 
thought it best to defer it until the next day. The sequel 
shows that General Field was right. Twenty-four hours 
elapsed, during which time the enemy greatly improved and 
strengthened his position. The plan determined upon was to 
attack at two o'clock on the evening of the 30th. Generals 
Anderson's, Bratton's, and Law's brigades, of Field's division, 
were to make the assault in front, while Hoke attacked at the 
same time the side next to the Blufl". By means of a ravine 
the latter was enabled to form within two or three hundred 
yards of the fort, while Field was probably three times 
that distance. At the expiration of a certain time, after a 
given signal, the assault was to commence. As soon as Gen- 
eral Field's line moved up, on a line opposite to General Hoke, 
he was to advance, and the attack was to be made simultane- 
ous. In accordance with this arrangement, the assaulting 
columns M^ere put in readiness, and the signal given. In order 
to cause no delay, and to make sure of getting all the men out 
of the trenches, a short while before the time expired. General 
Field ordered General Anderson to move his brigade in front 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 101 

of the works he then occupied, adjust his line, and make the 
men lie down until the other two brigades could form upon it. 
General Anderson failing to give his men the necessary in- 
struction as to his object, as soon as they leaped the breast- 
works they rushed forward with a yell, and he was unable to 
control them. This necessitated rapid movement on the part 
of the other brigades. General Hoke, awaiting the expiration 
of the time, did not move forward as was designed, in concert 
with the brigades of Field's division, and thus the enemy was 
enabled to concentrate his fire upon both assaults. 

Tlie troops did not attack with their usual impetuosity. 
Law's brigade accomplished its object, in sweeping up the old 
works, retaking a redan to the left of the fort, and thus pro- 
tecting our left flank. But the main attack failed. Hoke met 
a like repulse. Had General Field's plan to attack the even- 
ing before been adopted, in all human probability the fort 
would have been recaptured, and the enemy driven back across 
the river. 



ENGAGEMENT ON THE CHARLES CITY EGAD. 

On the morning of the 6th of October, the Yankee host, 
forty thousand strong, lay encamped on the north side of James 
River, the main body in the neighborhood of Fort Harrison, 
ten miles southeast of Eichmond, the Tenth (Birney's) array 
corps and Kautz's cavalry being five and a half miles nearer 
the city, and in position between the Darbytown and Charles 
City roads. 

With the first early light. General Geary's brigade of cavalry 
and a considerable force of our infantry struck the enemy's 
right, resting on the Charles City road, at a point from four 
and a half to five miles from the city. The Yankees were com- 
pletely surprised, and with little resistance fled into their in- 
trenchments, a short distance in their rear. Here they were 
in strong force, and prepared for a desperate resistance ; but 
our troops, following up their first blow with great impetuosity, 
carried the works and drove the Yankees out, capturing nine 
I)ieces of cannon, one hundred artillery horses, and several 
hundred prisoners. 



;I02 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

General Geary, by tliis time, had Kautz on the run, and was 
driving him ahead of the infantry. 

Our infantry continued to press the Tenth Corps back. Our 
troops then pressed forward towards a second line of the ene- 
my's intrenchments, which were carried after a sharp contest, 
and the enemy routed and pursued some distance towards Fort 
Harrison, when our men were withdrawn from tlie pursuit to 
the enemy's line of intrenchments just taken. 

The enemy, in the course of an hour or two, having been 
rapidly reinforced from the grand army at Fort Harrison, ad- 
vanced with confidence to the recapture of their former posi- 
tion. They were, after a long and desperate fight, repulsed 
with great slaughter, and as night closed in we held all the 
ground we had taken. 

In this fight the brave and chivalrous General Gregg, com- 
manding the Texan brigade, fell at the head of his troops, 
pierced through the neck by a minie ball. 



ENGAGEMENT ON THE WILLIAMSBURG AND BOTDTON ROADS — 
ANOTHER GRAND ATTEMPT ON EICHMOND. 

On the 27th of October, General Grant moved against the 
Confederate right and left flank. An interval of a month had 
occurred since his capture of Fort Harrison, and the extension 
of his right to the Darbytown road. The armies of the James 
and the Potomac moved simultaneously. 

It was soon ascertained that the Eighteenth Corps had made 
a detour around White Oak swamp, and was advancing in 
heavy columns up the Williamsburg and Nine Mile rotids. 
The object of this movement was to find, and if possible turn, 
Lee's left flank. General Longstreet at once ordered General 
Field, to take position on the Nine Mile road. 

He moved the division with great celerity, and gained the 
Williamsburg road just in time to repel an assault and save 
the fort and guns immediately on the road. 

On his arrival, he found that the enemy's heaviest force was 
massed upon that road, and that would be the point of main 
attack. 

Two or three brigades of negroes had been sent np the Nine 



4 



THE LAST YEAE OF THE WAR. 103 

Mile road, and had charged and carried the works, and ca]>- 
tured one piece of artillery, just as the Hampton Legion, of 
Gearj's cavalry, was going into position. But the Twenty -fourth 
Virginia cavalry coming up, they, in conjunction with the 
legion, charged and regained the works and artillery, and 
drove the negroes back with heavy slaughter. 

Severe skirmishing and artillery duels were being waged on 
the Darbytown and Charles City roads ; and one or two deter- 
mined assaults had been made upon Hoke's line, but had been 
handsomely repulsed. 

In the mean time, the enemy had planted two heavy field- 
batteries near the Williamsburg road, and were shelling our 
works most furiously. Their artillery was handled with great 
skill and precision. Our batteries did not respond, because 
they desired to hold their fire for the advance of the infantry. 
Their silence misled the enemy. Soon a line of battle de- 
bouched from the woods on the left of the Williamsburg road, 
evidently bent upon the capture of the fort. This time the 
negroes were in the rear, perhaps because the white soldiers, 
believing that the fort and its guns were but feebly manned, 
expected to make easy and quick work of it, and get all the 
glory. In this they were disastrously deceived. They had to 
advance through an open and level field for half a mile. The 
fort opened upon them with grape and canister ; and when 
within five hundred yards, Anderson's, the Texas, and Brat- 
ton's brigades poured terrible volleys of minies from their En- 
field rifles into their wavering ranks ; and by the time they 
arrived within two hundred yards, the fire from the artillery 
and musketry had become so destructive that they broke in 
every direction, and were charged by our skirmishers. The 
result, in addition to one hundred dead and many wounded, 
was the capture of 500 prisoners. 

On the Boydton plank-road the day had been no less de- 
cisive. The main attack of the enemy here was directed 
against the Southside Kailroad. The enemy was encountered 
here by three brigades under General Mahone in front, and 
General Hampton in the rear. Mahone captured four hundred 
prisoners, three stand of colors, and six pieces of artillery. The 
latter could not be brought off, the enemy having possession 
of the bridge. 



104 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 

In the attack subsequently made by the enemy, General 
Mahone broke three lines of battle, and during the night the 
enemy retreated from the Boydton road, leaving his wounded 
and more than two hundred and fifty dead on the field.* 

Thus failed, almost shamefully, Grant's ambitious movement 
of October. It had been easily repulsed at all points. There 
is no doubt that Grant had designed, at this season, an " On 
to Richmond," which was to electrify the North and carry for 
Lincoln the approaching Presidential election, only a few days 
distant. But he had utterly failed to respond to the " electoral 
necessity" at Washington ; although it must be admitted that 
events, to which we shall presently refer, in other parts of Vir- 
ginia, had amply supplied it, and adorned the Yankee arms 
with no mean success. 



THE CAMPAIGN IN THE VALLEY OF VIRGINIA. 

These Yankee successes were to occur in a quarter where 
tliey were least expected — in the Yalley of Virginia, a district 
heretofore illuminated by brilliant Confederate victories, and 
associated with heroic names. 

Early's army in the Valley, first designed to threaten Wash- 
ington, and to do a not less important service in saving the 
harvests of the Shenandoah, had become, in other respects, a 
most necessary part of General Lee's combination to protect 
Richmond. 

Of the four railroads which enter Richmond, two — the Freder- 
icksburg and the York River railroads — had become of but 
little account ; they drained a country already exhausted. But 
the Gordonsville road, connecting Richmond with the fertile 



* In the series of engagements on the Richmond lines just narrated, Field's 
division had borne a conspicuous part, and deserves a distinct mention. A 
correspondent wrote : " For thirty days this division has stood at the gates of 
the capital against overwhelming odds ; and, almost unaided, lias beaten back, 
with sad havoc, five of Grant's grand ' 0ns to Richmond.' It has lost, in 
killed, wounded, and missing, about twelve hundred men ; and yet is stronger 
to-day than it was a month ago. It has killed more than one thousand of the 
enemy, wounded five times that number, captured over 1,200 prisoners, several 
hundred stands of arms, five guidons, and fifteen battle-flags." 



THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 105 

Valley of the Shenandoah, was of great importance. It was a 
part of Early's mission to guard this communication, but a 
more important part of that mission was to cover the approach 
to Lynchbnrg. After the occupation of the Weldon road by 
Grant, the safety of Lynchburg became absolutely essential to 
the maintenance by Lee of any defensive position in Virginia, 
For Lynchburg was tlien the key to all the communications 
left to his army ; and if once captured by the Yankee forces 
and made a military station, it could be held by a small army, 
and made the centre of a new sj^stem of operations on the west 
side of Richmond. 

On the 8th of August, General Sheridan was placed in com- 
mand of what was called the Middle Military Division, super- 
seding General Hunter, his force consisting at that time of the 
Sixth, Eighth, and Nineteenth Corps, together with Crook's, 
Averill's, and Kelly's commands. On receiving his command, 
Sheridan established his headquarters at Harper's Ferry. 

Concentrating his troops at once along the Potomac, in the 
immediate vicinity of the Shenandoah Valley, whither General 
Early, now in command of the Confederate forces, had with- 
dratvn, Sheridan gradually advanced upon the important posi- 
tions of Martinsburg, Williamsport, etc., garrisoning these as 
fast as they were relinquished, and establishing complete and 
prompt communications between his headquarters and the ad- 
vanced posts. Early fell back gradually, for the purpose of 
luring Sheridan on. As Early retired, Sheridan took the op- 
portunity of seizing and securing "Winchester on the 12th of 
August, throwing out a cavalry detachment to Front Royal. 
This accomplished, he fell back in turn, abandoning Winches- 
ter, and awaiting at Harper's Ferry and its vicinity the concen- 
tration of his forces. 

On the 18th of September, General Early, with compara- 
tively a small force, was confronting Sheridan north of Win- 
chester. Sheridan attacked him on Opequan Creek, and 
captured fifty men belonging to the Eighth South Carolina 
regiment, who were on picket. Lnmediately Sheridan tele- 
graphed to Stanton, " I have captured one entire regiment, 
ofticers included." 



i06 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAK. 



BATTLE NEAR WINCHESTER. 



On the morning of the 19th of September, the enemy ad- 
vanced upon Winchester, near which place General Early met 
his attack. About daylight the enemy advanced, by the Ber- 
ryville road, on Ramseur, who was posted at the Spout Spring, 
on tlie same road, some four miles east of Winchester. Gen- 
eral Gordon was at Bunker Hill, twelve miles from Winchester, 
and ten miles from Martinsburg, on a reconnoissance. General 
Ehodes was at Hopewell Church, near Whitehall, to the left of 
the Martinsburg road, and about eight miles below Winchester. 
Gordon commenced moving back to the point of attack about 
daylight, and Rhodes moved in the same direction about seven 
o'clock. Wharton, meanwhile, remained on the extreme left, 
on the Martinsburg road, a short distance below Winchester. 
Between ten and eleven o'clock all of our troops were in posi- 
tion on the field, our line facing towards the east, the enemy's 
towards the west. The situation was as follows : Ramseur's 
troops stretched from Abraham Creek to the Berryville pike ; 
Rhodes had taken position between Ramseur and Gordon ; and 
Wharton, as above stated, held the left. The battle now 
raged heavily, and bore strongly towards our left. It was 
about half-past twelve when General Rhodes, while placing a 
battery in the gap between himself and Gordon, was struck in 
the head by a ball, and borne from the field. He was carried 
to Winchester, where he died in about half an hour after 
reaching the place. 

In some battles there is a marked crisis, when the fortune of 
the day is visibly and instantly decided. As the enemy pressed 
forward in the attack, a brigade, in Grover's division of the 
Nineteenth Corps, was forced to retire ; another was thrown 
into confusion, and the entire left of the division subsequently 
gave way. A Confederate battery opened upon the fl.ying 
troops. Their shells, descending among the broken columns of 
Grover, demoralized and shattered them still more. The entire 
infantry of the Confederates charged in turn, pouring in severe 
and rapid volleys towards the point of breakage. 

" The moment," says a Yankee correspondent, " was a fearful 



THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 107 

one. Snch a sight rarely occurs more than once in any battle, 
as was presented on the open space between two pieces of 
woodland, into which the cheeking enemy poured, in their 
eagerness. Their whole line, reckless of bullets, reckless even 
of the shells of our batteries, constantly advanced. Captain 
Steven's battery, posted immediately in their front, pnured its 
fire unflinchingly into their columns to the last. The men of 
the battery kept it at work in the face of the foe, who advanced 
at least within two hundred yards of the muzzles of the guns. 
General Rickett's division, pressed heavily in flank, gradually 
broke, and commenced falling back. General Getty's division, 
on the left, partially fell back likewise. The day, had such a 
situation been suffered to continue fifteen minutes longer, 
would certainly have been lost to us." 

The enemy ordered up his reserves in the rear of his broken 
centre. His columns were gradually reformed, and the battle 
raged with renewed fury. 

The Yankees now continued to push their line around our 
left, and about four o'clock in the afternoon, their cavalry, on 
the extreme right, made a charge upon our cavalry, completely 
routing it. Up to this time the battle had been progressing 
very favorably; but the stampede of our cavalry enabled the 
enemy to pass on our flank and in our rear, and made it neces- 
sary for our infantry to fall back, which it did, reaching Win- 
chester about sundown. The same evening our wliole army 
retired to Newtown, and the next morning to Fisher's Hill. 
This position, pronounced by military men to be the strongest 
in the Yalley, was eighteen miles from Winchester, and 
seventy-two from Staunton. It was overlooked, from the east, 
by the Massanutton Mountain, from which it was separated by 
the north branch of the Shenandoah River, while on the west 
it was protected by the North Mountain, and along its front 
base flowed a small branch called Cnmberland Run. 

The disaster of this defeat was painfully recognized by the 
Confederate public. In the fight, General Early lost three 
thousand men, from all causes, and three cannon. The misbe- 
havior of our cavalry was an especial subject of mortification. 
It had undoubtedly lost the day. Though outnumbered four 
to one our troops had met the attack nobly, and actually beat 
Sheridan's infantry, and were driving them back at all points, 



108 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 

when onr cavalry, who were relied upon to protect our flanks, 
gave way on our right. The enemy's cavalry immediately as- 
saulted the right of our victorious columns, and the fortunes of 
the day were changed, and a defeat of the Confederates ensued. 
Yet it was at least hoped that Early would be able to hold the 
immensely strong position of Fisher's Hill against all comers, 
and that there the tide of disaster would be stayed. But in 
this the Confederate public was to be infinitely disappointed. 



THE BATTLE OF FISHER S HILL. 

On the 22d of September, Sheridan brought up his entire 
force to assault the strong position of the Confederates on 
Fisher's Hill. The works were too formidable to be carried 
by an attack in front alone, and therefore, while keeping up a 
feint of a front attack, the Eighth Corps was sent far to the 
right, and, sweeping about Early's left, flanked him, and at- 
tacked him in the rear, driving him out of his intrenchments ; 
while the Sixth Corps attacked at the same time in the centre, 
front, and the Nineteenth Corps on the left. Confused and dis- 
organized by attacks at so many different points, the Confed- 
erates broke at the centre, and fled, in disorganization, towards 
Woodstock. Artillery, horses, wagons, rifles, knapsacks, and 
canteens were abandoned, and strewn along the road. Several 
hundred prisoners and twelve pieces of artillery were captured. 
The pursuit was continued until the 25th, and did not conclude 
until Early had been driven below Port Republic. 

This second most unexpected reverse of Early was the occa- 
sion of no little despondency in Richmond. The total of his 
losses in men and material was considerable ; and although the 
story of the Yankees, that in one week ten thousand of his 
men had been put out of combat, was absurdly false, enough 
was known in Richmond of the extent of the disaster to occa- 
sion the most serious misgivings and alarm. The harvests of 
the Shenandoah Yalley had been lost; the most productive 
districts of Virginia were opened to the waste of the enemy ; 
and the second capture of Staunton, that was to ensue, was to 
be the signal of another alarm for the safety of Lynchburg. 



THE LAST YEAK OF THE WAE. 109 

While Sheridan made his headquarters at Port Republic, he 
sent his cavalry, under Torbert, forward to Staunton ; which 
place they captured, and desti'oyed all the storehouses, machine- 
shops, and other buildings, owned or occupied by the Confed- 
erate government, and also the saddles, small-arms, hard-.bread, 
and other military stores found in the i^lace. They then pro- 
ceeded to Waynesboro', also on the Virginia Central Railroad ; 
tore up seven miles of the railroad track, destroyed the depot, 
the iron bridge over the Shenandoah, a government tannery, 
and other stores. General Sheridan also improved the time of 
holding possession of the Shenandoah Yalley to destroy all the 
grain, hay and forage to be found there, excepting what was 
necessary for the subsistence of his own army. The whole 
valley being thus devastated. General Sheridan moved leisurely 
northward, and on the 6th of October made his headquarters 
at Woodstock. South of this point over two thousand barns 
filled with wheat and hay, and over seventy mills stocked with 
wheat and flour had been destroyed ; and a vast herd of stock, 
and more than three thousand sheep had been reserved for the 
supply of the army. The Luray Yalley, as well as the Little 
Fort Yalley, were subjected to the same devastation. In the 
marauding expedition into the former valley, sixty-five hundred 
head of cattle, and five hundred horses were captured, and 
thirty-two large flouring mills, thirty distilleries, four blast-fur- 
naces, and over fifty barns were destroyed. 

The horror and crime of this devastation was remarkable 
even in Yankee warfare. They impoverished a whole popula- 
tion ; they reduced women and children to beggary and star- 
vation ; they left the black monuments of Yankee atrocity all 
the way from the Blue Ridge to the ISTorth Mountain. It is 
remarkable that the worst of Yankee atrocities were always 
done in the intoxication of unexpected success, when no longer 
the fears of previous disasters held in check their cruel coward- 
ice, and intimidated their native ferocity. 

On the 9th of October, Sheridan liad an aff'air with Rosser's 
cavalry, which had hung on his rear. One division of the 
Yankee cavalry charged along the Strasburg pike, while 
another, moving by a back road, took Rosser in flank. Sher- 
idan claimed in this afi'air to have taken eleven pieces of ar- 
tillery, and over three hundred prisoners. He wrote to the 



110 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

War Department, at Washington, a dispatch in which profan- 
ity and slang marked his lively sense of victory. He had 
" finished ' the Savior of the Yalley,' " and the worsted Con- 
federates he had pursued " on the jumjpi'''' for twenty-six miles. 



THE BATTLE OF CEDAR CREEK. 

The most important battle of the campaign in the Yalley 
was yet \o take place. 

On the 18th of October, Early lay at Fisher's Hill with two 
corps of Sheridan's army in his front, on the north side of 
Cedar Creek. Another corps, the Sixth, was between Middle- 
town and Kewtown. Sheridan himself was at Winchester, 
and his cavalry a little withdrawn from the front. The two 
corps on Cedar Creek were heavily fortified on the left (look- 
ing towards Middletown) of the turnpike, but their works on 
the right of the road were complete. 

This being the situation, Early deterrnined to attack and, if 
possible, to surprise the force at Cedar Creek. Accordingly, 
at nightfall of the 18th, he marched out of his works at Fisher's 
Hill to the stone bridge which crosses the little stream at the 
foot of the hill. Here his army was divided, the larger column 
moving to the right of the turnpike, the lesser to the left — the 
object being simultaneous attack on both flanks of the enemy. 
In order to flank the enemy's works on the right of the road, 
it was necessary to move the larger column through a narrow 
pass in the mountains, where two men could not walk abreast. 
Thus, marching in single file, the whole night was consumed 
before the large column found itself in a pro23er position to 
make the attack. Seven miles of rugged country was to be 
marched along the mountain side, and down hills so steep 
that horses could hardly travel, the men holding by bushes, 
and moving in single rank. The Shenandoah had to be crossed 
twice, the last time in the face of the enemy's pickets. Can- 
teens had been left at camp, and the men required to keep 
silent. 

Everybody was up to time; every thing ready. Payne 
charged across the river, driving in the pickets at a gallop, 
and pressing in the direction of Sheridan's headquarters, and 



THE LAST YEAK OF THE WAE. Ill 

towards Middletown. The infantry was then rushed across, 
Gordon's division in front, next Eamseur's — ^Pegram's in re- 
serve. J^othing was to be done but close up ranks, face to the 
front, and fight rapidly. The tiring began at all points, Ker- 
shaw charging in front,>and with great success. 

The enemy was struck by a fatal and terrible surprise. The 
Eighth and Nineteenth Corps were entirely routed. Great 
numbers of the Yankees were slain in their camps. Eighteen 
pieces of artillery were captured, fifteen hundred prisoners, 
small arms without number, wagons and camps, every thing on 
the ground. Two-thirds of Sheridan's army was routed ; noth- 
ing was left to cover their disorderly retreat but the Sixth 
Corps and their cavalry, which had not as yet been brought 
into action. It was now ten in the morning. Had our victo- 
rious forces pressed on in hot and vigorous pursuit and struck 
the Sixth Corps, they would have involved the whole of Sher- 
idan's army in complete rout, and achieved one of the most 
magnificent successes of the war. 

But our troops stopped. There was no more rushing, no 
more charging. They had betaken themselves to plundering 
the enemy's camp ; demoralization was fast ensuing ; the fire 
and flush of their victorious charge was quenched ; the fighting 
was now at long range ; the infantry was pushed forward at a 
snail's pace ; there was no longer any ardor or enthusiasm. 

For four or five hours there was comparative quiet ; the 
Confederates ranging the camps of the enemy for plunder, and 
taking no further notice of his forces in the distance, beyond 
some skirmishing and desultory firing. 

Tlie enemy, in the mean time, were not idle. Sheridan had 
slept at Winchester the previous night, but, hearing the can- 
nonade in the morning, he took his horse and pushed on 
towards Strasburg at full gallop, arriving on the field at ten 
o'clock A. M., just as the army had taken up its position north 
of Middletown. On his way he had met the throng of wounded 
and stragglers. He immediately ordered a new line of battle : 
the Nineteenth Corps on the right, the Sixth in the centre, 
and the recovered Eighth Corps on the left. Custer's cavalry 
was on the extreme right, and Merritt's on the left. At three 
o'clock Sheridan assumed the offensive, and attacked w4th 
vigor. 



112 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

Gordon's division, notwithstanding his efforts, soon broke. 
Kershaw's and Ramseur's divisions were lighting well, but 
soon followed the example of Gordon's division. Five or six 
guns in tlie rear were immediately driven back when the line 
broke, and placed on a high hill, where, with no aid from the 
infantry, who were flying in every direction, they kept the 
enemy at bay for an hour or more. Having exhausted their 
ammunition, they were compelled to withdraw. 

By this time Wharton's and Pegram's men had caught the 
panic, and the field became covered with flying men. The 
artillery retired, firing slowly, and sustained only by Pegram's 
old brigade and Evans' brigade. After the creek was crossed, 
Pegram's and Evans' brigades participated in the demoraliza- 
tion — the road was filled with fugitives. The enemy's cavalry 
charged again in the rear of our train, and not a gun was fired 
in its defence. Many ordnance and medical stores, and twenty- 
three pieces of artillery, besides those taken by us in the morn- 
ing, were captured. 

It was a shameful rout. Our troops behaved as they never 
behaved before. Our loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners 
was, perhaps, not greater than three thousand ; but the route 
of the retreat was strewn with abandoned wagons, ambulances, 
and small arms thrown away by the panic-stricken fugitives. 
Early had lost nearly all of his artillery. He had, in fact, 
received a stunning defeat from which his army never re- 
covered.* 



* The following address of General Early to Ms troops, on the occasion of 
this disaster, testifies to its causes, and is one of the most candid and memor- 
able papers of the war : 

Headquarters Valley District, October 22, 1864. 

Soldiers of the Army of the Valley : 

I had hoped to have congratulated you on the splendid victory won by you 
on the morning of the 19th, at Belle Grove, on Cedar Creek, when you sur- 
prised and routed two corps of Sheridan's army, and drove back several miles 
the remaining corps, capturing eighteen pieces of artillery, one thousand five 
hundred prisoners, a number of colors, a large quantity of small arms, and 
many wagons and ambulances, with the entire camps of the two routed corps ; 
but I have the mortification of announcing to you that, by your subsequent 
misconduct, all the benefits of that victory were lost, and a serious disaster 
incurred. Had you remained steadfast to your duty and your colors, the vie- 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 113 

From tins point the Valley campaign ceased to engage much 
of the public attention ; and with the withdrawal of the bulk 
of the opposing forces to the Richmond lines, the interest in 
military events was again transferred to that quarter. 

For six weeks after the battle of Cedar Creek, there were 
occasional skirmishes of greater or less severity between Tor- 



tory would have been one of the most brilliant and decisive of the war ; you 
would have gloriously retrieved the reverses at Winchester and Fisher's Hill, 
and entitled yourselves to the admiration and gratitude of your country. But 
many of you, including some commissioned officers, yielding to a disgraceful 
propensity for plunder, deserted your colors to appropriate to yourselves the 
abandoned property of the enemy ; and, subsequently, those who liad previously 
remained at their posts, seeing their ranks thinned by the absence of the plun- 
derers, when the enemy, late in the afternoon, with his shattered columns, 
made but a feeble effort to retrieve the fortunes of the day, yielded to a needless 
panic, and fled the field in confusion, thereby converting a splendid victory 
into a disaster. 

Had any respectable number of you listened to the appeals made to you, 
and made a stand, even at the last moment, the disaster would have been 
averted, and the substantia] fruits of victory secured. But under the insane 
dread of being flanked, and a panic-stricken terror of the enemy's cavalry, you 
would listen to no appeal, threat, or order, and allowed a small body of cavalry 
to penetrate to our ti-ain, and carry off a number of pieces of artillery and 
wagons which your disorder left unprotected. You have thus obscured the 
glorious tame won in conjunction with the gallant men of the Army of Northern 
Virginia, who still remain proudly defiant in the trenches around Richmond 
and Petersburg. Before you can again claim them as comrades, you will have 
to erase from your escutcheons the blemishes which now obscure them. And 
this you can do if you will but be true to your former reputation, your country, 
and your homes. You who hiive fought at Manassas, Richmond, Sharpsburg, 
Fredericksburg, Chaucellorsville, Gettysburg, and from the Wilderness to the 
banks of James River ; and especially you who were with the immortal Jackson 
in all his triumphs are capable of better things. 

Arouse yourselves, then, to a sense of youi- manhood, and appreciation of 
the sacred cause in which you are engaged ! Yield to the mandates of disci- 
pline ; resolve to stand by your colors in future at aU hazards, and you can yet 
reprieve your reputation, and strike effective blows for your country and the 
cause. Let every man spurn from him the vile plunder gathered on the field 
of the 19th ; and let no man, whatever his rank, whether combatant or non- 
combatant, dare exhibit his spoils of that day. They will be badges of his 
dishonor ; the insignia of liis disgrace. The officer who pauses in the career of 
victory to place a guard over a sutler's wagon, for his private use, is as bad as 
the soldier who halts to secure for himself the abandoned clothing or money 
of a flying foe ; and they both soil the honor of the army, and the blood of 
their country for a paltry price. He who follows his colors into the ranks of 
the enemy in pursuit of victory, disdaining the miserable passion for gathering 
lK)oty, comes out of the battle with his honor untarnished ; and though bare- 



114: THE LASr YEAR OF THE WAK, 

bert's cavalry, or some portion of it, and the Confederate cav- 
alry officers Rosser and Lomax ; biit Early, thongh moving 
uneasily up and down the Valley from Mount Jackson or New 
Market to Fisher's Hill, carefully avoided any thing like a 
general engagement, and in December sent a part of his forces 
to strengthen General Leo. 

SOUTHWESTERN VIRGmiA. 

In Southwestern Yirginia, during the period we have tra- 
versed and the early winter of 1864, there was a desultory cam- 
paign, to which we should briefly refer. 

footed and ragged, is far more to be envied than he that is laden with rich 
spoils gathered in the trail of his victorious comrades. There were some ex- 
ceptions to the general misconduct on the afternoon of the 19th, but it would 
be difficult to specify them all. Let those who did their duty be satisfied with 
the consciousness of having done it, and mourn that their efforts were para- 
lyzed by the misbehavior of others. Let them be consoled, to some extent, by 
the reflection that the enemy has nothing to boast of on his part. 

The artillery and wagons taken were not won by his valor. His camps 
were destroyed ; his army terribly shattered and demoralized ; his losses far 
heavier than ours, even in proportion to the relative strength of the armies ; 
his plans materially impeded ; and he was unable to pursue by reason of his 
crippled condition. Soldiers of the Army of the Valley, I do not speak to you 
in anger ; I wish to speak in kindness, though in sorrow. Jly purpose is to 
show you the cause of our late misfortune, and point out the way to avoid 
similar ones in future, and insure success to our arms. Success can only be 
secured by the enforcement and observance of the most rigid discipline. Offi- 
cers, whatever their rank, must not only give orders, but set the example of 
obeying them, and the men must follow that example. 

Fellow-soldiers, I am ready to lead you again in defence of our common 
cause ; and I appeal to you by the remembrance of the glorious career in 
which you have formerly participated, by the woes of your bleeding country, 
the ruined homes and devastated fields yoi^ see around you, the cries of an- 
guish which come up from the widows and orjihans of your dead comrades, 
the horrors which await you and all that is yours in the future, if your coun- 
try is subjugated, and your hopes of freedom for yourselves and your posterity, 
to render a cheerful and willing obedience to the rules of discipline, and to 
shoulder your musket again with the determination never more to turn your 
backs upon the foe, but to do battle like men and soldiers until the last vestige 
of the footsteps of our barbarous and cruel enemies is erased from the soil they 
desecrate, and the independence of our country is firmly established. If you 
will do this, and rely upon the protecting care of a just and merciful God, all 
will be well ; you will again be what you once were, and I will be proud to 
lead you once more to battle. 

J. A. EakLiT, Lieutenant-General. 



THE LAST YEAK OF THE WAR. 115 

On the 2d of October, General Breckinridge, wlio had re- 
lieved Echols in Sontbwestern Virginia, enconntered Bur- 
bridge, who was advancing on the salt-works at Saltville, Yir- 
ginia, and on the banks of the Holtston River defeated hiin, 
giving him a severe lesson. In l^oveniber, Breckinridge, hav- 
ing joined Yaughn in East Tennessee, defeated the Yankee 
General Gillem, at Morristown, taking four hundred prisoners; 
and on the 18th of the month, engaged and defeated the enemy 
again at Strawberry Plains. 

On the 20th of December, the salt-works at Saltville were 
captured by the Yankees, who in the early part of the month 
had been raiding on the Tennessee road. Our forces there 
were attacked by the whole force of Burbridge, numbering 
about five thousand. The fight was kept up all the evening, 
mainly with artillerj^, our forces being commanded by Colonel 
Preston, and numbering, it is said, not more than three hun- 
dred and fifty. When night fell they still held their own ; 
but, under cover of the darkness, the Yankees succeeded in 
reacliing Fort Breckinridge, one of the main defences of the 
place, in overpowering numbers, and captured it. Colonel 
Preston, deeming it impractible to hold the works longer, then 
ordered the evacuation. The works were fired the next morn- 
insr. The Yankees did not remain long, and left for East Ten- 
nessee. At Abingdon, they destroyed two entire blocks of 
buildings. 



116 THE LAST YEAR OF TJIK WAK. 



CHAPTER Yir. 

Mr. Lincoln's extraordinary' triumph. — Eeassembling of the Eichmond Congress. — 
President Davis' review of the situation. — A memorable boast. — New demands of 
the Confederate conscription. — Military resources of the North and South com- 
pared. — Plethoric wealth of the North. — " Twenty against one." — Two advantages 
the South had in the war. — Its conditions of success. — -The value of endurance on 
the part of the South. — The Hood-Sherman Campaign. — Speeches at headquarters. 
— Hood commences his march. — Capture of Dalton. — Sherman follows as far as 
Gaylesville. — He turns back. — Georgia and South Carolina " at his mercy." — An 
e.xtraordinarj campaign.— Hood and Sherman marching away from each other. — 
Hood cros.ses into Tennessue. — The Yankee retreat to Franklin. ^-The Battle op 
Franklin. — Great loss in Confederate officers. — The enemy retreats to Nashville. — 
Battle of Nashville. — The giving way of Bates' division. — A shameful stampede. 
— Hood's losses. — The whole scheme of Confederate defence west of the AUe- 
ghauies broken down. — The errors of Hood's campaign. 

We have already stated that the military successes of the 
two or three preceding months secured the re-election of Pres- 
ident Lincoln on the Sth of Novemher. His re-election was 
singularly triumphant. General McClellan received only the 
electoral vote of Delaware (3), Kentucky (11), and I^Tew Jersey 
(7), 21 in all. Mr. Lincoln received that of the remaining 22 
States, 213 in all. Mr. Lincoln had the vote of all the States 
which he received in 1860, with the exception of the half vote 
of New Jersey, which was cast for him in consequence of a 
division in the opposition party. Besides these, he received 
the 7 electoral votes of Maryland, which in 1860 were cast for 
Mr. Breckinridge; the 11 votes of Missouri, cast for Douglas; 
and the 11 votes of the new States of Kansas, West Virginia, 
and Nevada. In the States which voted at this election, there 
was in 1860 a popular majority of about 100,000 against Mr. 
Lincoln ; the popular majority in his favor now was about 
300,000. 

A few days before this election, the Confederate Congress 
had reassembled in Bichmond. The message of President. 
Davis opened with an ingenious review of the campaign ot 
1864. " At the beginning of the year," he said, "Texas was par- 
tially in the possession of the enemy ; now no Federal soldiers 



thp: last tear of the war. 117 

were in tlie State, except as prisoners. In Northwestern 
Louisiana, a large Federal army and fleet bad been defeated, 
and had only escaped with a loss of one-tliird of its numbers, 
and a hirge part of its munitions and vessels. Arkansas had 
been nearly recovered ; and the Confederate forces had pene- 
trated into Missouri. On the east of the Mississippi, in spite 
of some reverses, the Confederates had been on the whole suc- 
cessful ; Northern and Western Mississij^pi, Northern Ala- 
bama, and Western Tennessee were in their possession. On 
the seacoast, the successes of the Federals had been confined 
to the capture of the outer defences of Mobile Bay. Their 
armies had been defeated in different parts of Virginia ; and 
after a series of defeats around Richmond, they were still en- 
gaged in the effort, commenced four months before, to capture 
Petersburg. The army of Sherman, though it had captured 
Atlanta, had gained no real advantage beyond the possession 
of a i'ew fortified points which could be held only by large 
garrisons, and were menaced with recapture." 

President Davis CDncluded his review with a memorable 
boast. "The Confederacy," he declared, " had no vital points. 
If Pichmond, and Wilmington, and Charleston, and Savannah, 
and Mobile were all captured, the Confederacy would remain 
as defiant as ever, and no peace would be made which did not 
recognize its independence." 

The Confederate President, while professing to see no cause 
for despondency in the military situation, took occasion to re- 
commend the repeal of all laws gi-anting exemption from mili- 
tary service. He said that " no position or pursuit should 
relieve any one who is able to do active duty from the enrol- 
ment in the army," unle-s he amid be more useful in another 
sphere, and this could not be the case with entire classes. The 
military authorities should have the power to exempt individ- 
uals only, whose services may be more valuable in than out 
of the army. In regard to the question of the employment of 
slaves in the army, Mr. Davis recommended that slaves to the 
number of 40,000 should be " acquired" by the general gov- 
ernment, who should be employed not merely as ordinary 
laborers, cooks, and teamsters, but as engineer and pioneer 
laborers. He recommended that these slaves should be liber- 
ated on their discharge, after faithful service, rather than that 



118 THE LABT YEAR OF THE WAE. 

tliey should be manumitted at once, or retained in servitude. 
He was opposed, under present circumstances, to arming "the 
slaves; but he added : " The subject is to be viewed solely in 
the light of policy and our social economy. Should the alter- 
native ever be presented of subjugation or of the employment 
of the slave as a soldiei', there seems to be no reason to doubt 
what then should be our decision." 

AYe have, at different periods in the history of the war, in- 
stituted a comparison between the material resources of the 
belligerents. They were terribly unequal at this period. Mr. 
Lincoln, in his message to Congress, referred to a fact which 
could not be denied : that the steady expansion of popula- 
tion, improvement, and governmental institutions over the 
new and unoccupied portion of the North had scarcely been 
checked, much less impeded or destroyed by the war. 'New 
and immense resources had been recently developed by the 
enemy ; and it seemed, indeed, that providential circumstances 
had come to his aid in the war. The discovery and develop- 
ment of petroleum had added immensely to the national wealth, 
and it was calculated that in a few years it would become an 
article of export to the extent of one hundred and fifty millions 
of dollars. Mineral resources, almost fabulous, had been 
brought to light. What once seemed a barren and uninhabit- 
able waste, between the Atlantic States and those which had 
grown up on the Pacific Ocean, had proved a new El Dorado. 
It was estimated that the products of the mines of gold, silver, 
and cinnabar in that region had, in the past year, exceeded one 
hundred millions of dollars. It was discovered that a vast 
belt of some one or two hundred miles in width and eight or 
nine hundred in length, embracing portions of Idaho, Nevada, 
acd Arizona, w^as rich in silver ore. The North had be- 
come suddenly plethoric with wealth ; and for men and ma- 
terial for the purposes of w^ar, it had the whole world to draw 
upon. 

A Yankee newspaper said : " We have now over twenty-six 
millions of people within the Union lines, against less than five 
millions (over one-half negro slaves) within the lines of Davis. 
All things considered, the actual, positive available strength 
of Lincoln against Davis is more than twenty against one. 
The war, then, should be, at the furthest, brought to an end 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 119 

within six montlis, and with becoming energy on the part of 
the administration it might be finished in three." 

Bnt there was one element which the newspaper did not 
take into its calculation ; and which, despite the almost appall- 
ing disparity of resources between the belligerents, insured, 
on certain conditions^ the final success of the South. It was 
the vast extent of territory which the North proposed to sub- 
jugate, and which never yet, in the history of wars, was 
brought to such a fate, on the single condition that its people 
remained firm in their resolution and purpose. Against the 
inequality of resources between the JSTorth and the South, we 
may put these considerations, in which the latter had immense 
advantages : that the South was fighting on the defensive, and 
had, therefore, no need of positive victories; that she only 
sought a negative conclusion, and might win by endurance ; 
and that her territory was so extensive that it would take 
several millions of men to garrison it, as long as its people 
were firmly disposed to dispute the authority of the in- 
vaders. 

With reflecting persons in the North, the real question 
touching the war had come to be the measure of Southern en- 
durance ; and this virtue had obtained a new and vital value 
in the stages through which the war was now passing. It was 
fashionable for Yankees to laugh at Confederate expectations 
of political revolutions or financial rupture in the North; they 
concluded that the time was past when the Confederates could 
expect to win their independence by a grand military cQu;p or 
force of military successes. All these calculations were lightly 
or insolently regarded by Northern men. Their real anxiety 
was, the measure of endurance on the part of the South. The 
great curiosity of Northern politicians was as to the real spirit 
of the South, and the questions of thinking men amon"- tliem 
invariably went to the point of the probable term of Southern 
endurance. This quality had assumed a new value in Northern 
eyes. It had become morally certain that by force of it alone 
the South would obtain her independence. Such was the silent 
but general concession of the Northern mind. There was but 
one condition to assure the independence of the South : that 
the spirit of the people and the army would not break by some 
unworthy impatience, or not be deliberately broken down by 



120 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

insane persistence in folly on the part of Davis and his clique 
of toadies and encouragers 

There were two parties in the North, perhaps equally intel- 
lio-ent, and each claiming to draw their opinions from Southern 
sources of information, which differed as to the real spirit of 
the South : one claiming that it was resolute, and even in the 
last necessity desperate ; the other contending that it was fast 
beino- broken by reverses, and would end in submission. One 
found this question in every circle in the North. Eeliable in- 
formation upon it was far more valuable to the "Washington 
Government than maps of all the fortifications in the Confed- 
erate States. To convince the North of the spirit of the 
Southern people was more important than half-a-dozen vic- 
tories ; for it was to convince them of the hopelessness of war, 
and to put before their eyes the immediate necessity of con- 
scription. 

President Davis said rightly that the Confederacy " had no 
vital points ;" but the declaration implied the condition that 
the spirit of the people^ despite of temporary disasters, was to 
remain erect and unbrohen. And a period of the war was 
now approaching when precisely that condition was to be 
tested, and the spirit of the people of the' Confederacy was to 
be tried, as it had never before been, by the fire and sword of 
the invader. To the events of this remarkable period we must 
now draw the attention of the i-eader. 

THE HOOD-SHERMAN CAMPAIGN. 

The public did not have long to wait for the development 
of that curious strategy which President Davis had planned 
wnth Hood for the compensation of the loss of Atlanta. In- 
deed, no secret was made of its general movement and designs. 

On the 18th of September, President Davis arrived at Gen- 
eral Hood's headquarters, and the following day reviewed the 
'whole army. In the evening, the President addressed the sol- 
diers in hopeful and encouraging tones. Turning to Cheat- 
ham's division of Tennesseeans, he said : " Be of good cheer, 
for within a short while your faces will be turned homeward, 
and your feet pressing Tennessee soil." 

General Hood was enthusiastically called for. He said : 



i 



THE LAST YEAK OF THE WAB. 121 

" Soldiers, it is not my province to make speeches : I was not 
born for such work ; tlu\t I leave to other men. Within a few 
days I expect to give the command ' Forward !' and I believe 
you are, like myself, willing to go forward, even if we live on 
parched corn and beef. I am ready to give the command 
' Forward !' this very night. Good-night." 

On the 29th of September, Hood began his march, getting 
well in the rear of Sherman, and next day encamping near the 
old battle-ground of Kew Hope Church. His first movement 
attracted but little attention. The incautious language of 
President Davis first led the enemy to suppose that this move- 
ment was preliminai-y to something more extensive, and Gen- 
eral Sherman's suspicions also were apparently aroused by it ; 
for we find him about this time sending his spare forces to the 
rear, under General Thomas, and distributing strong detach- 
ments, under Newton, Corse, and Scholield, at different points 
imiuediateiy in the rear of Atlanta. He also ordered frequent 
reeonnoissances of the enemy in his position near IsTewnan. 
Tlie Yankee cavalry reported, on September 27, farther move- 
ments of Hood towards the Chattahoochee. On October 1, 
Generals Fuller and Ransom made a reconnoissance towards 
Kewnan, and discovered that the Confederates had crossed the 
Chattahoochee River on September 29 and 30, and had con- 
centrated in the vicinity of Powder Springs, Ga. On the 3d 
of October, General Sherman, with the bulk of his army, 
moved in pursuit, Avowing his intention to destroy Hood. 

On the 5th of October, when Hood's advance assaulted Al- 
latoona, Sherman was on Kenesaw Mountain, signalling to the 
garrison at Allatooua, over the heads of the Confederates, to 
hold out until he relieved them. Hood moved westward, and 
crossing the Etowah and Oostananla rivers by forced marches, 
attacked Dalton on the 12th, which was surrendered. 

After obstructing Snake Creek Gap as much as possible, in 
order to delay Sherman, who continued to press him. Hood 
moved west, passing through the gap of Pigeon Mountain, aiid 
entered Lafayette on the 15th of October. He had now ad- 
vanced as far north as it was thought possible to do without 
fighting, and a battle appeared to be imminent in the vicinity 
of the old battle field of Chickanuiuga. But Hood, after hold- 
ing the gaps of Pigeon Mountain as long as possible, suddenly 



122 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 



moved south from Lafayette to Gadsden, Alabama, closely fol- 
lowed as far as Gaylesville by General Sherman, This move- 
ment was looked upon as a retreat, and as the end of the great 
raid of which Hood and Davis had promised and boasted so 
much. But it soon became apparent that Hood was not yet 
at the end of his strategy, and that the campaign was only 
about to begin in earnest. 

On October 23, Hood moved from Gadsden, through Look- 
out Mountain, towards Gunter's Landing and Decatur, on the 
Tennessee Kiver, near the last of wdiich places he formed a 
junction with a portion of General Dick Taylor's army, which 
had meantime quietly moved up the Mobile and Ohio Rail- 
road to Corinth, and thence to Tuscumbia, the new base of 
supplies. He thus placed himself far in General Sherman's 
rear before that officer could take steps to transfer his army to 
the new front of the Confederates on the Tennessee. Hood's 
advance had probably reached the Tennessee before Sherman 
positively knew that he had abandoned Gadsden. Undoubt- 
edly it was much to his surprise when, on October 25, he tried 
the gap and found it abandoned by Hood. The position was 
certainly startling. He dared not follow, thus abandoning his 
line of supplies to venture in a mountainous country, through 
which a large army liad just passed. It w^as impossible to 
transfer his entire army to Hood's front in time to meet him 
and thus hold his communications intact. Tlie j)osition de- 
manded resolution and action. 

General Sherman seems here to have comprehended Hood's 
designs.. On the junction of Taylor's army with him, he rea- 
soned that the two would strike a blow for the recovery of 
Middle Tennessee; and, if successful, then for East Tennessee 
also. But he calculated that Tennessee would be safe in charge 
of General Thomas, to whom he could assign a force sufficient 
to grapple with Hood, Taylor, or Beauregard ; while for him- 
self he had projected another campaign. Turning eastward, 
then, from Gaylesville, he announced to his army that he 
should follow Hood no longer, but let him go north as far as 
he pleased. " If he will go to the river," he said, "I will give 
him his rations." Giving his instructions to General Thomas, 
and dividing his army so as to spare him a part of the Army 
of the Cumberland and the Army of the Ohio, he moved 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 123 

southeast towards Atlanta by the Ist of November, causing 
the raih'oacl track to be removed from Atlanta to Cliattanooga, 
and sent to the latter city. On the 4th of I^ovember, he be- 
gan his preparations for his new movement; and the same day 
telegraphed his intentions to Washington, in the following 
words: "Hood has crossed the Tennessee. Thomas will take 
care of him and Nashville, while Schofield will not let him 
into Chattanooga or Knoxville. Georgia and South Carolina 
are at my mercy — and I shall strike. Do not be anxious 
about me. I am all right." The campaign he had projected, 
was neither more nor less than this : witli the four corps, and 
the cavalry force still under his immediate command, an army 
of not far from sixty thousand infantry and artillery, and about 
five thousand cavalry, he purposed, catting loose from all bases, 
and constituting a strictly movable column, with thirty or 
forty days' rations, and liis train reduced to the smallest pos- 
sible dimensions, to move southeastward, through the heart of 
the country, upon Savannah ; and thence, should circumstances 
favor, northward through South Carolina and North Carolina, 
to compel the sui"render or evacuation of Richmond. 

And now commenced one of the most extraordinary cam- 
paigns of any war — presenting the singular spectacle of two 
great antagonistic chieftains hotJi at once acting on the offen- 
sive, day after day marching away from each other, and mov- 
ing diametrically apart. 

On the 20th of November, General Hood commenced to 
move his army from Northern Alabama to Tennessee. His 
line of march from Florence followed two parallel roads to 
the chief town of Wayne County, in Tennessee — Waynesboro'. 
Simultaneously with this advance, the Yankees evacuated or 
surrendered Decatur and Huntsville. The Fourth Army 
Corps, under General Stanley, two divisions of the Twenty- 
third Corps, under General Schofield, and an aggregation of 
fort-garrisons from the surrounding country, under General 
Richard W. Johnson, concentrated at Pulaski. Hood, imme- 
diately after his arrival at Waynesboro', changed front to the 
northwest ; and, while marching directly upon Columbia, 
threatened, with Forrest's cavalry, to cut ofi" the Yankee re- 
treat from Pulaski. That position, about to be flanked, was at 
once abandoned. Schofield, with the force that had been con- 



124 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

centrated there, retreated on the 23d ; and, while his cavahy 
were being pressed in upon his rear by those of Hood, at- 
tempted, by a forced march, to reach Columbia. Forrest had, 
however, fallen upon the Yankee base, and, having forced 
them back rapidly, had advanced within four miles of Colum- 
bia, Schofield's infantry had, however, come up in time to 
sa-. e the place from capture, and to hold back the Confederates 
until the works covering the place had been made impassable 
by a chevaiix defrize of Yankee bayonets. 

Hood's infantry marched on. On tlie 25th, they had com- 
menced a movement for flanking Colambia on the eastward, in 
conjunction with an attempt of Forrest to cut that place off 
from railroad communication with Nashville. Under heavy 
skirmishing and cannonading, Forrest succeeded in extending 
his flank to Duck River, and in throAving a large force of his 
cavalry to the opposite bank. The Confederate infantry, filing 
at the same time around the place on the east, the state of af- 
fairs became critical, and compelled Schofield to fall back 
hurriedly, with a loss of stores, on the night of the 26th. 

The retreat to Franklin was one of constant fighting. Skir- 
mishing of the very heaviest and deadliest character was 
maintained all the way. Forrest hung like a raging tiger upon 
the rear, and occasionally pressing Wilson back, brought face 
to face the retreating and the pursuing infantry. On the 29th, 
General Cox, commanding Schofield's rear, was brought to bay 
at Spring Hill, midway between Columbia and Franklin, and, 
after a struggle to delay the advance, retreated successfully to 
the main body at Franklin, 

The Confederates pressed on, Forrest leading, Stewart next, 
and Cheatham following. Lee was still in the rear, but coming 
up. The enemy were closely pushed, retreated rapidly, and 
left evidences of their haste on every side ; wagons half burned 
or with wheels cut, and animals, weltering in their own fresh 
blood, were strewn along the road. After travelling in this 
manner for about seven miles, Stewart sent word to the rear 
that he had brought the Yankees to bay, and they were two 
miles' in his front, in line of battle, occupying a ridge of hills. 

By the time a disposition of our forces was made for an as- 
sault, the Yankee columns broke into marching order, and 
moved on as before. A short distance ahead the Yankees 



THK LAST YEAK OF THE WAR. 125 

agaiu made a stand. Tlie Confederates prepared, as before, to 
attack. No sooner were the preparations complete, however, 
than the Yankees resumed their march, and thus gained time 
for their wagon trains and artillery. On reaching the last 
bridge on which the enenij had halted, Hood saw before him 
the town of Franklin, and in front of it three strong lines of 
battle, in three heavy series of breastworks. 



THE BATTLE OF FRANKT.TK. 

« 

It was late in the evening of the 30th of November, when 
the Confederate army approached Franklin. General Hood 
resolved to attack at once. Had he waited till the next morn- 
ing, a new and formidable line of works would have confronted 
him, and the second and inner line would have been so greatly 
strengthened, that it would have been madness to have attacked. 
General Hood knew that Thomas would endeavor to hold 
the old line of Nashville, Murfreesboro', and Franklin ; and he 
felt that if he could fight the battle of Nashville at Franklin, 
and be successful, that Nashville would fall, Tennessee be 
given up, and the war transferred to the Ohio. 

Stewart and Forrest made a detour to the right, and by five 
o'clock had struck the enemy a stunning blow on his left ilank. 
Cheatham now moved up, and joining his right, as near as 
practicable, to Stewart's left, the battle was joined, and waged 
with fierceness on both sides. 

Thousands of our soldiers were standing once more on their 
own native soil, and some in sight of their own homes ; and 
they fought with every incentive in their hearts that can urge 
manhood to noble deeds. The enthusiasm of the troops was 
glorious ; the country a vast, unbroken plain, as level as a 
table ; and the sight of those long dark lines, fringed with fire 
and smoke, with twenty thousand rifles mingling their sharp 
notes with the deeper thunders of the artillery, was well cal- 
culated to inspire the heroism which impelled our army on to 
victory. Major-generals, brigadiers, and colonels rode in front 
of their commands, waving hats, and urging on the troops. 
Men fell wounded and dead — great rents were torn — but, with 



126 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

the steadiness of veterans, the gaps were filled by the living, 
and the colnnm moved on. 

The first line of breastworks was swept clean. Our loss had 
been great. General Pat. Cleburne, the " Stonewall Jackson'' 
of the West, fell, shot, through the head with four balls, and 
died on the ramparts. General Gist, previously wounded in 
the leg, had refused to leave the field, limping along on foot, 
cheering his men, and finally received a ball through the 
breast, killing him instantly. Brown, Maniganlt, Johnson, 
Strahl, and scores of field and staff ofticers, who had ex- 
posed themselves at the head of their troops, were either 
killed or wounded. Still our men faltered #iot. Dashing on, 
they reached the second line. Tiie Yankees were stubborn. 
On the right they had charged Batjes' division, and gained a 
momentary advantage ; but recovering, that gallant oflicer 
was again at the front, and, with his brave Tennesseeans, doing 
splendid service. 

For a time the Yankees lield their breastworks, and the 
fiffhtino- was hand to hand between those in the ditch on the 
outside, and those behind the intrenchments. But tlie struggle 
was not long, and again the foe was flying across the field. 
It was night, however, and the difficulties of continuing the 
battle so gi-eat, that at two o'clock a. m., save the occasional 
spattering of musketry, the grand chorus of battle was at an end. 
The next morning it was discovered that the Yankees had 
evacuated the position, and were in full retreat to ^Nashville. 
It was likewise discovered that Thomas had been largely rein- 
forced, and thus enabled to make the stubborn resistance 
which had not been anticipated by Geneiiil Hood. 

Just before the battle of Franklin had been joined, Hood 
liad ridden along the lines of his army, telling his men that the 
Yankee lines were weak, and that once broken, the army 
would be driven out of Tennessee. He had been extravagant 
in his promises. The Yankee General Thomas lay at Nashville 
with his main force. 

Hood now advanced upon Nashville, and laid siege to it on 
the 2d of December, closely investing it for a fortnight. 



THE LAST YEAK OF THE WAK. 127 



THE BATTLE OV NASHVILLE. 

Wlnle Hood was intrenching Ijefore iSTashville, Thomas was 
preparing for an assault on the Confederate position. Rein- 
forcements were received from several sources, until by the 
12th the Yankee ranks were swelled to an extent which war- 
ranted Thomas to advance to the attack whenever his arraiige- 
ments were completed, A consultation of the Yankee com- 
manders was held on the 12th, and it was determined to attack 
the Confederate lines on the following day. Tliis plan was 
frustrated by Hood, who fell back to a stronger position, two 
miles south of that held by him on the 12tli. Another council 
W'as held on the 14th, and all things being in readiness, it was 
agreed to make the attack next morning. 

On the morning of the loth of October, the enemy attacked 
both flanks of Hood's arm3^ They were repulsed on the right 
with heavy loss ; but towards evening they drove in the Con- 
federate infantiy outposts on the left flank. 

The next day the enemy made a general attack on Hood's 
entire line. The battle raged furiously from dawn till dark. 
Thomas' overwhelming numbers enabled him to throw heavy 
columns against Hood's left and centre. All the enemy's as- 
saults were repulsed until about half-past three o'clock in the 
afternoon. When it was supposed by General Hood that he 
had in his grasp a splendid victory, a stampede suddenly took 
place in one of his divisions, and the day was lost in a moment. 

Bates' division was to the left of^the Confederate centre. It 
had repulsed the enemy in the morning. He advanced again 
late in the evening, and was repulsed again from the other 
points of the line fronting Bates' division, but rushed over this 
point, and by sheer force of numbers beat down and run over, 
killing, wounding, and capturing, in the ditches, nearly every 
man holding them. Support had been asked for by General 
Bates and General Walthall, as is understood; both of them 
were within forty yards of this point all the day. Instead of 
getting support at this, the only salient point in the whole 
Confederate line, one brigade was taken from the right and 
another from tiie left of this point, to save the extreme left of 



128 THE LAST YKAR OF THE WAE. 

tlic line. When this was done, so confident was General Bates 
of the coming disaster, that he ordered his artillery back on 
the Franklin pike, which was then its only exit. 

The break in Bates' division was the signal for a general 
panic in Hood's army. The moment a small break was made 
in his lines, the whole of two corps unaccountably and in- 
stantly fled from their ditches, most of them without firing a 
gun. It was a disgraceful retreat. Fifty pieces of artillery 
and nearly all of Hood's ordnance M^agons were left to the 
enemy. Our loss in killed and wounded was disgracefully 
small ; and it w^as only through want of vigor in Thomas' pur- 
suit that Hood's shattered and demoralized army efi['ected its 
retreat. 

He finally made his escape across the Tennessee River with 
the remnant of his army, having lost from various causes more 
than ten thousand men, half of his generals, and nearly all of 
his artillery. Such was the disastrous issue of the Tennessee 
campaign, which put out of existence, as it were, the splendid 
army that Johnston had given up at Atlanta, and terminated 
forever the whole scheme of Confederate defence west of the 
Alleghanies. 

General Hood recrossed the Tennessee at Florence, General 
Forrest covering his retreat, and was at Tu2:)elo on the 6th of 
January, 1865, where, on the 23d, he took leave of the army 
in the following order : 

" Headquarters Araiy op the Tennessee, 
Tupelo, Miss., Jan. 23, 18G5. 

" Soldiers — At tny request, I have this day been relieved 
from the command of the army. In taking leave of you, ac- 
cept my thanks for the patience with which you have endured 
your hardships during the recent campaign, I am alone re- 
sponsible for its conception, and strove hard to do my duty in 
its execution. I urge upon you the importance of giving your 
entire support to the distinguished soldier who now assumes 
command, and shall look with deep interest on all your future 
operations, and rejoice at your success. 

"J. B. Hood." 

The complete and disastrous failure of General Hood was 
freely acknowledged in the Confederacy ; and the glaring 





GEN. HOOD. 



C.B.Bidiardsoii .Poblistier. 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAE. 129 

errors in his campaign did not escape the savage criticisms of 
the Richmond newspapers. It was said, with obvious justice, 
that his greatest mistake had been at Nasliville. He had sat 
down before that city for a fortnight, and proceeded to invest 
it on the south. Had he struck boldly across the Cumberland, 
and settled himself on the Yankee communications, he would 
have forced Thomas to evacuate Nashville and fall back to- 
wards Kentucky. But he adopted another plan, and paid the 
penalty of his error in defeat and heavy loss. 

While at one end of the line of the Tennessee-Georgia cam- 
paign the Confederates had thus come to grief, at the other 
end, stretching towards the sea, there were other more import- 
ant disasters and occasions of peculiar trial, such as the spirit 
of the Confederacy had never before experienced. The effect 
of Sherman's march to the sea on the morale of the Confed- 
eracy dates the first chapter of its subjugation. 



130 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 



CHAPTEE YIII. 

Sherman's march from the mountains to the sea. — Yankee hoasts. — Easy nature of 
Sherman's enterprise. — " Grand" mistake of the Confederates. — Tlie burning of 
Atlanta. — Five thousand houses in ruins.— Sherman's route to Milledgeville. — 
Second stage of tlie march to Millen. — Last stage of the march. — Wheeler's cavalry. 
— The fall of Savannah. — Capture of Fort McAllister. — Probable surprise of 
Hardee. — The Confederates evacuate Savannah. — Sherman's Christmas- gift to Mr. 
Lincoln. — The true value of Sherman's exploit. — His own estimation of it. — De- 
spondency in the South. — Depletion of the Confederate armies. — The exchange of 
PRISONERS, etc. — Bad faith of the Yankees.— Their misrepresentations. — The ques- 
tion of recaptured slaves. — A Yankee calculation. — The Washington Government 
responsible for the sufferings of Yankee prisoners. — How capital was made out of 
their snfferings. — A game with "sick" prisoners. — How "rebel barbarities" were 
manufactured. — Noble conduct of General Grant. — Its commentary on the Wash- 
ington cabinet. — His "victory" over that body. 

There was scarcely a Yankee newspaper that did not find 
more or less frequent occupation in fextolling the genius of the 
march which Sherman had undertaken from the mountains of 
Georgia to the sea, and placing it above the achieveriients of 
Hannibal, Napoleon, and Marlborough. I3ut the simple fact 
was, that the Davis-Hood strategy was a grand mistake, and 
Sherman's advantage of it proportionally grand. By this 
strategy Georgia was uncovered, and Sherman had plain march- 
ing to the sea. There was no considerable force to oppose 
him. The whole plan, which had originated in the brain of 
President Davis, to compensate for the enemy's oflfensive 
movement in Georgia by penetrating Tennessee was outrage- 
ously foolish, from the simple consideration that the two inva- 
sions wei'e necessarily unequal : for that into the enemy's 
country could not seriously affect his superabundant resources, 
while that into the Southern interior went right into the heart 
of the Confederacy ; and having once passed the frontiers, on 
which the South had necessarily thrown out all its resources in 
men, was destined to realize General Grant's assertion, that the 
Confederacy was merely a shell. 

Before undertaking his great campaign towards Savannah, 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAK. 131 

Sherman ordered the destruction of most of the inhabitable 
part of Atlanta. He destroyed, in all, nearly five thousand 
houses here, and left behind him a picture of ruin and desola- 
tion, such as is seldom to be found in the ravages of war.* 

On the 15th day of ISTovember, Sherman began his march to 
the sea. He moved forward in two columns. General Howard 
commanding the right and General Slocum the left, while his 
cavalry covered his flanks. General Howard's column moved 
through East Point, Kough-and-Keady, Griffin, Jonesboro', 



* An agent of Governor Brown, of Georgia, made the following official report 
of the extent of the destruction done by the enemy in Atlanta : " The property 
of the State was destroyed by fire, yet a vast deal of valuable material remains 
in the ruins. Three-fourths of the bricks are good, and will be suitable for re- 
building if placed mider shelter before freezing weather. There is a quantity 
of brass in the journals of burned cars, and in the ruins of the various ma- 
chinery of the extensive railroad shops ; also, a valuable amount of copper 
from the guttering of the State depot, the flue pipes of destroyed engines, stop 
cocks of machinery, etc., etc. 

The car-wheels that were uninjured by fire were rendered useless by break- 
ing the flanges. In short, every species of machinery that was not destroyed 
by fire, was most ingeniously broken and made worthless in its original form 
— the large steam-boilers, the switches, the frogs, etc. Nothing has escaped. 
The fire-engines, except Tallulah No. 3, were sent North. Tallulah has been 
overhauled, and a new fire-company organized. Nos. 1 and 2 fire-engine 
houses were saved. All the city pumps were destroyed, except one on 
Marrietta-street. The car-sheds, the depots, machine shops, foundries, rolling 
mills, merchant mills, arsenal, laboratory, armory, etc., were all burned. 

In the angle between Hunter-street, commencing at the City Hall, running 
east, and McDonough-street, rimning south, all houses were destroyed. The 
jail and calaboose were burned. All business houses, except those on Alabama- 
street, commencing with the Gate City Hotel, running east to Lloyd-street, 
were burned. All the hotels, except the Gate City, were burned. By referring 
to my map you wUl find about four hundred houses standing. The scale of 
the map is four hundred feet to one inch. Taking the car-shed for the centre, 
describe a circle, the diameter of which is twelve inches, and you will perceive 
that the circle contains about three hundred squares. Then, at a low esti- 
mate, allow three houses to every four hundred feet ; and we will have thirty- 
six hundred houses in the circle. Subtract the number of houses indicated on 
the map as standing, and you will see by tliis estimate the enemy have de- 
stroyed thirty-two hundred houses. Refer to the exterior of the circle, and 
you will discover that it is more than half a mile to the city limits in every 
direction, which was thickly populated, say nothing of the houses beyond, and 
you will see that the enemy have destroyed from four to five thousand houses. 
Two-thirds of the shade-trees in the park and city, and of the timber in the 
Buburbs have been destroyed. The suburbs present to the eye one vast, naked, 
ruined, deserted camp." 



132 THE LAST YEAB OF THE WAE. 

McDonoiigh, Forsythe, Hillsboro', Monticello, and bridging 
the Ocmulgee entered Milledgeville on the 20th of JSTovember. 
Here General Sherman made his headquarters for a few days, 
while Howard moved on through Saundersville, Griswold, to- 
wards LouisvillOj the point of rendezvous, with the left wing. 
That wing, under the command of General Slocum, had mean- 
time passed through Decatur, Covington, Social Circle, Madi- 
son ; made a feint of an attack upon Macon ; parsed through 
Buckhead and Queensboro', and, dividing one detachment, 
moved towards Augusta, and the other to Eatonton and Sparta. 
The second stage of Sherman's march may be taken as from 
Milledgeville to Millen. The distance was about seventy -five 
miles, and the time occupied in the march eight days, f^om 
November 24th to December 2d. 

The Yankee troops left Milledgeville admirably clothed 
and equipped. Each man had eighty rounds of ammunition : 
while their wagons contained fixed material without stint. 
Kations for forty days had been prepared, and they sufi'ered 
for nothing. The Yankee cavalry, with the left wing, on 
crossing the Oconee, had visited Sparta, which is on a line be- 
tween Warrenton and Milledgeville, about equi-distant from 
both. On the evening of the 24th, General Slocum's advance 
encamped at Devereux, seven miles west of Sparta, and the 
cavalry scoured the whole country, one of the most fertile and 
thickly settled in the whole State, and vast quantities of forage 
and provisions, many horses, and mules were obtained, and 
much cotton burned. For several days the Yankees raided 
through the entire country between the two railroads in the 
vicinity last described. Abundance of food and forage was 
secured, and every thing was destroyed which could be useful 
to the enemy. The march was leisurely — Sherman evidently 
finding himself master of the situation. He did not start 
directly for the seaboard until he had all the provisions he 
desired. 

Sherman was now ready to enter upon the third and last 
stage of his march. Behind him the Georgia Central Railroad lay 
destroyed for more than a hundred miles, and the Georgia road 
for full sixty. The railroad-bridge over the Oconee and the 
Ogeechee, on the Georgia Central, had been destroyed, and 
also those over Brier Creek and Buckhead Creek, en the 



THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAE. 133 

Waynesboro' Branch connecting Augusta with Millen. In- 
calculable damage had been done. It only remained to move 
down to the Atlantic, and crown the campaign in the capture 
of Savannah. 

From Millen, then, on the 2d of December, the Yankee 
army swung southerly down on the final stage of its journey 
to Savannah, in half a dozen columns, moving over as many 
different roads for the sake of convenience and speed. The 
Confederate forces, massed at Augusta, were left hopelessly in 
Slierman's rear. The army was protected on either flank by a 
large river, and cavalry formed the vanguard and rear-guard. 
Its mission, as a curtain for the conceahnent of infantry opera- 
tions, had now been accomplished. The country traversed was 
covered with pine forests, cut up by numerous creeks, and in- 
tersected by wide stretches of swamps ; and further on the 
coastwise, swamps and the low rice-fields became the prevalent 
character of tlie region. 

So far General Sherman's march had been almost without 
opposition. It had had one or two small conflicts with Wheel- 
er's cavalry ; and some few militiamen and conscripts, hastily 
assembled and badly organized, were easily brushed from his 
path. Ten miles from Savannah, where his left wing struck 
the Charleston Railroad, he encountered Confederate skir- 
mishers posted in a swamp near by, which indicated the 
presence of the Confederate forces under Hardee for the first 
time. 

THE FALL OF SAVANNAH. 

On the 10th of December, Sherman lay in line of battle, con- 
fronting the outer works of Savannah, about five miles distant 
from the city. It was easy for him to see that his first task 
was to open communication with the fleet. 

That part of the coast of Georgia, at the mouth of the Sa- 
vannah, is of that amphibious character which marks so much 
of the Southern coast in general — the ravelled and unfinished 
ends of nature's web, where sea and land join. The ocean, 
breaks in between Great Wassaw and Ossabaw Islands, form- 
ing Ossabaw Sound, and into this estuary flow the Great and 
Little Ogeechee and the Vernon rivers. The land, or rather 



134 THE LAST TEAK OF THE WAR. 

the marsh on each side of the Ogeechee, was almost d ileur 
cfeau^ certainly hardly rising a foot above the level of the river, 
while at times it is entirely submerged. For miles and miles 
on every hand tliere was nothing to be seen but these low and 
level islands and islets, covered with reeds and rank grasses, 
save where a lustier vegetation had pushed up in occasional 
clumps of trees called " hummocks." 

About six miles from the mouth of Ossabaw Sound, near 
where the Savannah, Albany, and Gulf Railroad crosses the 
Ogeechee, the river jets out into a promontory named Point 
Genesis, covered by one of these hummocks of more than 
ordinary size. Behind this, hidden from the river, lay Fort 
McAllister, an earthwork of considerable strength, erected by 
the Confederates early in the war. Its batteries completely 
commanded the river. 

On the 12th of December, Hazen's division of the Fifteenth 
Corps was selected for the important work of carrying Fort 
McAllister. At half-past four o'clock of the 13th, the division 
went forward to the assault, another division supporting it, 
over an open space of more than five hundred yards. The 
Yankees rushed on at the double-quick. The fort was ap- 
proached and stormed from all sides. Resistance was useless, 
as by a singular improvidence the fort was garrisoned by not 
more than two or three hundred Confederates ; and there is no 
doubt that General Hardee had been surprised by the quick- 
ness and decision of the enemy. 

Sherman himself had ordered the assault, and witnessed the 
execution of the order from the top of a house not far distant; 
and as soon as he saw the men on the parapets, he exclaimed 
to his stafl^", " The fort is ours ! Order me a boat — I am going 
down to the fleet." 

The possession of Fort McAllister opened Ossabaw Sound, 
effected communication with Dahlgren's fleet, and made the 
capture of Savannah, where Plardee had allowed himself to be 
shut up with fifteen thousand men, but a question of time. In 
fact Sherman had now invested the city on all but the eastern 
side. His right held King's Bridge, far in the rear of Savan- 
nah, and controlled the Ogeechee, whence his lines stretched 
across the Savannah River, his left being about three miles 
above the city. He had cut off all the railroad supplies of 



THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAE. 135 

Savannah. On the south, he had struck the Savannah, Albany, 
and Gulf Railroad, which formerly had transported large sup- 
plies of cattle and provisions from Florida to Savannah. 
The railroads from Augusta and Macon were thoroughly 
broken. Foster's batteries had gotten within shelling distance 
of the Charleston Railroad, and prevented the passage of 
trains. It only remained to move regularly upon the city by 
systematic approaches. It could not hope for outside succor 
of any kind ; Sherman's prompt seizure of Fort McAllister 
having prevented reinforcements down the, Charleston road, 
and cut off General G. W. Smith, who, with several thousand 
Confederates, was on the other side of the Ogeechee. 

From the 10th to the 16th of December heavy artillery 
firing and skirmishing went on all along the lines, but no 
regular engagement occurred. On the 16th, Sherman for- 
mally demanded the surrender of the city from its commander, 
Hardee, who declined next day to accede to the demand. Sher- 
man instantly hurried more heavy siege-guns upon his lines, and 
on the 20th was prepared to bombard the city and assault its 
works. But Hardee had already taken the alarm. Finding that 
only the eastern exit was open to him, and that on that Sherman 
was already cannonading, and soon might capture it by assault, 
Hardee resolved to evacuate Savannah. On the afternoon of the 
20th, his iron-clads and batteries opened a tremendous lire, 
lasting into the night, and, under cover of the demonstration, the 
Confederate general crossed his fifteen thousand men and his 
large force of negro laborers upon a pontoon bridge, laid below 
his rear batteries, to the South Carolina side, and marched 
them off towards Charleston on the Union causeway. The 
night was exceedingly favorable for such a movement, it being 
very dark, with a west wind blowing. Next morning, at 
break of day, the pickets of Geary's division crept forward, 
advanced still farther, and went over the works ; and Geary 
himself, marching into Savannah, received, on the morning of 
the 21st December, 186'1, its formal surrender at the hands of 
its mayor. The troops were gone. The navy-yard, two iron- 
clads, many smaller vessels, and a vast amount of ammunition^ 
ordnance stores, and supplies had been destroyed before the 
evacuation, but all the rest of the uninjured city fell into the 
hands of the Yankees. 



136 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

Sherman sent a characteristic dispatch to Washington. He 
wrote to President Lincoln : " I beg to present you, as a 
Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, with one hundred and 
fifty heavy guns and plenty of ammunition, and also about 
twenty-five thousand bales of cotton." 

And so ended Sherman's famous march to the sea — an ex- 
ploit which Yankee newspapers declared had not been excelled 
since William of Normandy crossed the English Channel and 
burned his boats on the shore ; and since Hernando Cortez 
plunged into Mexico, on the most astounding of expeditions, 
and stranded his ships at Yera Cruz. But Sherman himself 
had a much juster and more modest estimation of his exploit. 
On receiving the congratulations of the President and also of 
his personal friends, on account of his success, and seeing him- 
self greatly praised in the public journals at home and abroad, 
he wrote : " I am now a great faverite because 1 have been 
successful ; but if Thomas had not whipped Hood at Nashville, 
six hundred miles away, my plans would have failed,, and I 
would have been denounced the world over." In his special 
congratulatory orders, he said : "The armies serving in Georgia 
and Tennessee, as well as the local garrisons of Decatur, 
Bridgeport, Chattanooga, and Murfreesboro', are alike entitled 
to the common honor, and each regiment may inscribe on its 
colors at pleasure the words ' Savannah' or ' Nashville.' " 

The fall of Savannah was the occasion, whether duly or not, 
of great despondency in the South. The single disaster was 
not very considerable ; but the march through Georgia that 
had led to it had afforded a painful exhibition of the decay of 
the spirit of the Confederates, and the moral efi'ect of this ex- 
hibition was far worse than any disaster the South had ever 
yet suffered in the field. It suggested a general review of the 
situation of the Confederacy ; the people commenced to cal- 
culate the cost and sacrifices of the war, and to estimate the 
terrible depletion that had taken place in the armies of the 
Confederacy during the campaign of 1864. 

That depletion had ensued from various causes. The Yankees 
had encouraged desertion to an extent never known before, 
and they had managed to keep in captivit}' nearly every pris(MiiH- 
they had taken west of the Mississippi since the battle of Ge>- 
tysburg. The history of Yankeejinesse in this matter deserves 



THE LAST YKAK OF THE WAE. 



a distinct place in the records of the war, and may properly be 
reviewed here at the close of the year 1864. 



THE EXCHANGE OF PEISONERS, ETC. 

It may be truly and emphatically said that on no subject had 
the enemy shown such bad faith as on that of the exchange of 
prisoners. During the year 1864, the Confederate authorities 
had, at different times, put forth every exertion to obtain an 
exchange of prisoners; but such exertion to this end was met 
by some new pretence of the Yankees, who had resolved to 
avoid a general exchange, and to coin a certain advantage out 
of the sufferings of their own men in Southern prisons. 

The Confederate authorities had at first insisted upon the re- 
lease of all prisoners, the excess to be on parole. The enemy 
refused to comply with this plain requirement of the cartel, 
and demanded, when a delivery of prisoners was made, an 
equal number in return. Seeing a persistent purpose on the 
part of the Yankee Government to violate its agreement, our 
authorities, moved by the sufferings of the brave men who 
were so unjustly held in the Northern prisons, determined to 
abate their just demands. On the 10th of August, 1864, 
Colonel Ould, the Confederate commissioner, offered to ex- 
change the prisoners respectively held by the two belligerents, 
officer for officer and man for man. Although this offer was 
substantially what had often been propos-ed by the Yankee 
authorities, and would have left in their hands whatever excess 
of prisoners they might have had, yet it was not accepted. 

Another pretence put forth by the Yankees for declining a 
general exchange of prisoners was, that the Confederates had 
refused to include in the cartel negro soldiers. This was a 
misrepresentation. The extent of the claim of the Confederates 
on this point was simply that they would not return to the 
enemy recaptured slaves ; for to do this the Confederate Gov- 
ernment would stultify itself, ignore the law of its social system, 
and be a party to an outrage on the rights of property in its 
own citizens. 

But this proper position of the Confederate authorities in- 
volved the disposition of only a few hundred persons; and it ia 



138 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

not reasonable to suppose that a punctilious care for them 
really stood in the way of the duties of humanity to forty or 
fifty thousand white captives. This professed care for two or 
three hundred black slaves, which was made to weigh down 
all considerations of humanity in behalf of thousands of white 
men pining in prison, was plainly nothing more than a pre- 
tence, a new ground of frivolous excuse, to refuse a general 
exchange. In November, Colonel Onld wrote to the Confed- 
erate secretary of war : 

" My own iirm conviction is, tliat even if we were to agree 
to the unjust demands of the enemy in this respect, we would 
not secure a general exchange. * * * x think it 

very doubtful whether they would agree to a general ex- 
change, even if we consented to treat recaptured slaves as 
prisoners of war, and delivered those whose term of service had 
not expired. T am satisfied their course is the result of a con- 
viction forced upon them by the events of the war, that a Con- 
federate soldier is more valuable than a Federal. The miseries 
of tens of thousands of their own people are as nothing when 
weighed ao;ainst a calculation." 

Here was the true secret of the game which the North 
played on the subject of exchange. Men were scarce in the 
South ; the Confederate soldier was superior in prower.s to the 
Yankee ; and thus the Government at Washington was con- 
vinced that any exchange, man for man, would be to its dis- 
advantage, and deliberately adopted the remorseless and in- 
human policy of enforcing the captivity, with all its attendant 
suiferings, of the prisoners on both sides during the war. This 
policy of the Yankees exhibited to the unhappy victims from 
their army an amount of ingratitude that was to the last 
deirree monstrous. General Sherman had not hesitated to 
avow, with utter disregard of the claims of his captive soldiers 
on his consideration and protection, that as the terms of service 
of many had expired, they were not to be regarded as sub- 
jects of general exchange. 

But the Washington Government was not satisfied, for con- 
siderations of certain advantage, to consign its soldiers to the 
extraordinary sufferings of imprisonment incident to the scant 
Bupplies in the South, which indeed it was daily endeavoring 
to diminish by blockade and devastation. It went a step 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 139 

further. It paraded these very sufferings, for which it was 
responsible, whicli indeed its own malignity had produced, to 
raise a clamor about the cruelty of the Confederates, and thus 
engage the sympathies of the world. 

It is almost impossible to sound the depths of Yankee 
cruelty in this subject of exchange. 

At one time, in the fall of 1864, the Yankees refused to ex- 
change any prisoners but those who were sick ^ and then to 
accuse the inhumanity of the Confederates, the poor, wasted 
victims of prison diseases were paraded through the country, 
and had their photographs taken for pictorials, as fair speci- 
mens of the results of life in Confederate prisons. The calcu- 
lation that could have prompted such an exhibition appears 
indeed to partake of an ingenuity of beings other than man.* 

* The following expose was made in a Riclimond paper. It refers to an ex- 
change of sick prisoners made in the fall of 1864 : 

" The mortality among our unfortunate prisoners sent by sea to Savannah to 
be exchanged was very remarkable. We liave published a list of one hundred 
and seventeen who died on the passage to Savannah ; also a list of thirty-two 
who died within a few days after being landed. Distressing as is tliis mortal- 
ity, the Confederate newspa^^ers have not been so inconsiderate as to impute it 
to a wrong cause. Revolting at the shocking inhumanity which limits ex- 
changes to the sick, the feeble, and the dying, .we have received home our 
bretliren, emaciated as they are with long-protracted disease, and we have 
wondered, not that so many died, but tha tso many, travelling in such a con- 
dition, should live. 

" We have sent to the truce-boat a similar class of the Federal prisoners in 
our hands ; it is for these only that tlie Yankees have bargained. When the 
poor creatures reach them, worn and wasted by sickness, and evidencing, in 
their appearance, that they should be in the hospitals instead of travelling, in 
place of the sense of shame which the Yankee authorities and people should 
feel at the consequences of tlieir inhuman policy, with such audacious hypoc- 
risy as a Yankee only can manifest, they seize the occasion to calumniate the 
Confederates, a reluctant party to a commerce worse than ' the middle pas- 
sage.' and only better than protracted imprisonment. They pretend to con- 
sider the returned men as samples of those who have been left behind ; they 
charge their weakness and emaciation to starvation, and not to sickness ; tliey 
clamor like so many howling dervishes ; and with an effrontery that the 
world beside cannot equal, they extract self-glorification out of their own 
crime, and heap reproaches on us who are its victims ! 

" We know that their treatment of our prisoners is horrible enough. But, 
much as we execrate such conduct, and the people who can practise it, we 
respect ourselves too much to slander them. We do not pretend that the .sick 
men who are sent home to us are samples of the rest. We are not so false as 
to represent their emaciation as due to starvation and not to disease. Multi- 



140 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

/ 

In connection with the history of the prisons of the war, 
there is something of tribute to be paid to the conduct of 
General Grant. This high officer, however profuse of the lives 
of his men in battle, had certainly an unaffected sympathy 
and interest for the imprisoned soldier. It was through his 
offices that, in the later months of 1864, an agreement, first 
proposed by General Lee, was concluded, to the effect that, 
without releasing either Government from the obligation of 
affording due provision to its captives, each should have the 
right of furnishing to its own prisoners, in the possession of the 
other, under the direction of officers among them, to be paroled 
for the purpose, such additional supplies of necessary articles 
as it might deem expedient to send. It is, indeed, indicative 
of the remorseless policy of the Yankee Government that such 
concessions to the claims of humanity should have been made 
Booner by the stern soldier in the lield than by their statesmen 
in the cabinet. 

We may add here, in advance of the order of our narrative, 
that General Grant, having been subsequently empowered 
with the duties of exchanging prisoners, and put in a position 
to overrule the behests of such men as Stanton and Butler, did 
himself immortal honor in instantly authorizing a general ex- 
change, and breaking by a stroke of the pen all the tissues of 
falsehood and cunning in which this matter had been so long 
entangled. This act has done more for his reputation in just 
and humane history than any victory of his in the field. But 
the benefit of it came too late for the South, and only a few 
thousand Confederate prisoners reached home in time to wit- 
ness the catastrophe of the spring of 1865. 

tudes of the poor suflferers die, as we have seen, on their way to our lines. 
Many die before we can take them to our arms. Many die before we can get 
them into our hospitals ; and many there languish and die without a sight of 
the home for which they risked the travel. In all our distress at this mor- 
tality, we are candid enough to recognize the cause, and to tell the truth amid 
our resentments. Not so the Yankees." 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAK. 141 



CHAPTER IX. 

The blockade at Wilmington. — How ineffective. — First expedition against Fort 
Fisher. — Butler's powder-sliip.— The two days' bombardment. — Landing of 
Butler's troops.— Butler decides not to attack. — His sudden departure. — He is 
removed from command. — Second expedition against Fort Fisher. — Fall of 
Wilmington. — Landing of Terry's command.— Movements of General Hoke. — The 
assault on the fort. — A feu (Venfer. — Desperate fighting. — The Confederates 
overpowered. — Surrender of Fort Fisher. — Evacuation of Fort Anderson. — Yankee 
occupation of Wilmington. — How a part of General Sherman's campaign in the 
Carolinas. — Sherman's sixtv days in the Carolinas. — Direction of his march. — 
Crossing llie Savannah River. — Mismanagement of the Confederate troops. — Sher- 
man at Branchville. — The fall of Charleston. — Hardee joins Beauregard. — 

Conflagration in Charleston. — E.xplosion at the railroad depot. — A scarred city. 

Charleston as seen through Yankee eyes. — Capture and burning of Columbia. 

Wild and savage scenes of pillage. — The city on fire. — Four thousand citizens 

homeless. — Sherman's march northward. — His organization of " bummers." 

The column of smoke. — Tlie Yankees at Winnsboro'. — More of the enemy's atro 
cities. — Sherman's feint upon Charlotte. — His occupation of Fayetteville. — Hamp- 
ton attacks Kilpatrick. — Sherman's appointment of a rendezvous with Schofield. 
— Hardee's fight near Averysboro'. — What he did with half a corps of Confeder 
ates. — The Battle of Bentonville. — Success of the Confederates. — No decisive 
results. — Sherman's move towards Goldsboro'. — Schofield's movement. — Sherman's 
success. — His congratulatory order. — A military conference at City Point, Virginia. 

"Wilmington had long been a thorn in the enemy's side. 
Mr. Welles, the Yankee secretary of the navy, had declared, 
in his last oflacial report, that Wilmington, owing to the pecu- 
liarity of its situation, could not be absolutely closed to block- 
ade-runners, without the co-operation of the army ; for the 
forts which protected it were in such shoal water that the 
heavily armed ships could not get at them. Fifty fast Yankee 
steamers had been unable to close this port. 



FIRST EXPEDITION AGAINST FORT FISHER. 

At the close of the summer of 1864, an expedition had been 
planned against Fort Fisher, according to Mr. Welles' sugges- 
tion of the co-operation of a land force. It was delayed, for 
various reasons, until the winter. Vice- Admiral Farragut was 



142 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAE. 

selected by the Yankee Government to take charge of the naval 
force, but was unable to assume that duty on account of ill 
health. Rear-Admiral Porter was then transferred from the 
command of the Mississippi squadron to the command of the 
North-Atlantic blockading squadron. The most powerful fleet 
ever known in American history was assembled at Hampton 
Koads, under command of Admiral Porter. The land force 
consisted of six thousand five hundred infantry, two batteries 
of artillery, and a few cavalry. On the 13th and 14th of De- 
cember the expedition started, General Butler with the army 
transports proceeding to a place twenty-five miles off New 
Inlet. Admiral Porter, with his fleet, proceeded to Beaufort 
to complete taking on his ammunition and supplies, including 
some powder for a vessel proposed to be exploded before Fort 
Fisher, and some ammunition for the monitors, which were 
towed light from Fortress Monroe to Beaufort. 

"Wilmington was then but feebly garrisoned. A number of 
Confederate troops there had been sent to increase the forces 
opposed to Sherman in his march across the State of Georgia. 
General Butler had supposed that he would find an easy con- 
quest there ; and, in fact, he had foisted himself upon the expe- 
dition to get what he supposed would be a cheap glory, for the 
command of it had been given to General Weitzel, and Butler 
had insisted upon accompanying him, for the reason that the 
scene of operations was within his department, and the troops 
from his command. 

A novel feature was introduced into the expedition against 
Fort Fisher, viz., a vessel loaded with a large quantity of 
powder to be exploded as near the fort as possible. The idea 
appears to have originated with General Butler, in consequence 
of reading of the terrible effects of the explosion of a large 
quantity of gunpowder at Erith, England, some time before. 
He suggested it to the departments at Washington, and they 
submitted it to their engineer and ordnance ofiicers for exam- 
ination and report. Those oflicers, while not anticipating any 
very wonderful results from this new experiment, still deemed 
it of such importance as to reccanmend its trial. 

On Friday, 23d of December, Admiral Porter gave orders 
that the powder vessel be sent in as near Fort Fisher as possi- 
ble, and exploded that night at one o'clock. Information of 



THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 143 

what he proposed to do was sent to General Butler at Beau- 
fort, but did not reach him until Saturday morning, when he 
immediately started for Fort Fisher, ordering the transports to 
follow as rapidly as possible. The powder-boat was exploded a 
little before two o'clock on Saturday morning, and the Yankee 
navy commenced their bombardment about noon of that day. 

The explosion of the powder-boat was a ridiculous failure, 
and attracted such little attention in the fort that General 
Whiting, Mdio was in command there, supposed it to be nothing 
more than the bursting of one of the enemy's guns. The bom- 
bardment of the fort continued for two days. It was probably 
the heaviest which had ever occurred in the annals of naval 
warfare. The huge frigates of Porter's fleet led the way ; then 
the grim ugly Ironsides ; then the monitors and the great line 
of smaller vessels, stretching away out, almost as far as the 
eye could reach. From every vessel could be seen the white 
curl of smoke, and high up in the air hundreds of smoky rings 
were formed from the explosion of guns. Thick flew the shell ; 
loud sounded the thunder of artillery ; lurid were tlie flashes 
of great guns as they vomited forth their missiles of death and 
destruction. ]S"obly stood the Confederates to their guns. 
From Shephard's battery to the mound, they stood unquailing 
and defiant, loading and firing coolly and calmly ; the gunners 
sighting their guns as if they were practising at a target. 

After the arrival of General Butler a conference was had ' 
with Admiral Porter as to operations next day. It M-as ar- 
ranged that General Weitzel should land with some two or 
three thousand troops, and reconnoitre the fort with the view 
of assaulting it. 

The expectation of the garrison that they would have a 
night-fight was not realized. The night was spent in watch- 
ing and in repairing the slight damage sustained by the fio-ht. 
As the morning dawned, the fleet could be discerned in the ' 
distance getting ready to renew the attack; but it was not 
expected that operations would commence before high tide, 
which would be about half-past twelve o'clock. However, 
every man was at his post, ready, at any moment, to again 
engage the fleet. About ten o'clock the fleet commenced mov- 
ing in — their extreme right resting near Gatlin's battery, about 
six miles up the beach, and their left extending down to the 



144: THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 

fort. The Ironsides led the attack, the frigates resting on her 
right and left, and tlie monitors to the right of the frigates. 
There were counted fifty-two vessels in all — one Ironsides 
three or four monitors, four frigates, and forty-seven other ves- 
sels. They steamed in very slowly, two of the frigates going 
round to the sea front of the fort, and the iron-clads and moni- 
tors lying abreast of the centre fi'ont. The Ironsides and 
monitors cimie up within a mile ; the rest of the fleet remained 
out about one and a-half miles. At half-past ten a. m. the first 
gun was fired by the Ironsides, followed by the rest of the fleet 
— firing very slowly and deliberately for the while. The fort 
reserved its tire, thinking that the wooden fleet would be 
tempted to come in closer range. Finding, however, that they 
would not come closer, it opened, also firing very slowly. 

About noon the fleet commenced firing with great rapidity. 
The dull, heavy, thumping sounds of the enemy's guns, as 
they were fired, could be heard first, and then the whistling, 
shrieking sound of the shells as they came whizzing and buzz- 
ing through the air. Their explosion and the myriad frag- 
ments that went rattling by, thick almost as hail, were terrible 
to listen to. The air was hot with fire ; the earth shook ; there 
was no interval of quiet ; all was noise — crash, bang, and crash 
all the time. 

A shell whistled close to General Whiting. It buried itself, 
exploding, and covering him all over with the wet sand. He 
did not even move, not even take his pipe from his mouth, and 
only remarked coolly, " Well, it spattered me." 

While the bombardment was at its height, it was discovered 
that tlie enemy had succeeded in landing a force at Anderson 
and Holland batteries, and that their line of skirmishers were 
advancino- on the fort. All was excitement now. The infan- 
try man the parapets, and the sharp crack of the rifle is heard 
instead of the heavy booming of guns. The lull was of short 
duration — the most terrific bombardment now commenced ; 
the fleet had seen their land forces, and they opened with 
greater fury than ever to keep the Confederates from engaging 
the skirmishers. 

But there was to be no battle on land. Weitzel had re- 
ported to Butler that it was not advisable to attack ; and that 
commander had very promptly desisted from the enterprise. 



THE LAST YEAR OF TIIK WAR. 145 

His troops (more than two thousand had been landed) were 
ordered back to the transports ; and his whole force, consisting 
of sixty -tive hundred men, was summarily withdrawn from 
the expedition, and with such singular celerity that the next 
day they were on the way back to Fortress Monroe. 

As night came on the fire of the fleet fell off. Tiie fort had 
made a gallant and complete defence; and the success of the 
Confederates could no longer be disputed. The enemy's at-« 
tack the first day lasted five hours ; on the second day, seven 
hours ; firing altogether over tw^enty thousand shots from fifty 
odd vessels. 

The Confederates responded with six hundred and sixty-two 
shots the first day, and six hundred the second. Their loss 
was only three killed and fifty-five wounded. 

The ground in front and rear of the fort was covered with 
shells, and was torn in deep pits. But the damage to the 
works was not considerable. Two guns in the fort burst, two 
were dismounted by the Confederates, and two by the enemy's 
fire ; but the fort was unhurt. 

The failure of the expedition against Fort Fisher, the out- 
post of the defences of Wilmington, was the occasion of some 
sharp recrimination between Admiral Porter and General 
Bntler. It is very certain that the latter oflicer, who had 
boasted that he would eat his Christmas dinner at Wilmington, 
was generally considered to have retired from the scene of 
action in disgrace, and that a few days thereafter he was made 
to pay the penalty of his failure by an order from Washington, 
removing him from the Army of the James, and sending him 
to his home in Massachusetts.* 

* General Grant testified as follows before a committee of tlie Yankee Con- 
gress, appointed to inquire into Butler's conduct : 

Question— The expectation was to surprise the fort ? 

Answer — Yes, sir; and my instructions were very clear, and if they eflFected 
a landing there above Fort Fisher, that in itself was to be considered a suc- 
cess ; and if the fort did not fall immediately upon their landing, then they 
were to intrench themselves, and remain there and co-operate with the navy 
until the fort did fall. In my instructions I provided for a bold dash for the 
capture of Wilmington, in case Fort Fisher did fall immediately upon the 
landing of the troops. If it did not fall, then they were to intrench, enter upon 
a siege of the place, and remain there until it did fall. And the capture of Wil- 
mington would thus become a matter for future consideration. General Butler 
came away from Fort Fisher in violation of the instructions which. I gave him. 

10 



146 THE LAST YEAE OF THE WAR. 



SECOND EXPEDITION AGAINST FORT FISHER, — FALL OF WILMINGTON. 

Neither General Grant nor tlie "Washington authorities were 
satisfied with Butler's conclusion that Fort Fisher was impreg- 
nable. The naval force remained in the vicinity during some 
very stormy weather, while a second military force was organ- 
ized under command of General Terr3^ This force consisted 
of some eight thousand five hundred men, with siege guns and 
intrenching tools. On the 13th of January, the troops were 
landed on the beach above Fort Fisher, and proceeded to 
throw up intrenchm(>nts. 

Tlie enemy landed, under cover of his fleet, near Battery 
Gat] in, about nine miles from Fort Fisher. Wiiile he was 
landing. General Hoke appeared and drew up in line parallel, 
to watch his movements, and intercept them when possible to 
do so. It was not possible to j)revent the landing, owing to 
the situation of the point chosen. The enemy landed on the 
banks, just above the neck of the sound, thus interposing a 
small surface of water between them and an attacking force ; 
or compelling such force to circle around the lower extreme of 
the sound — either of which movements would have to be done 
under tlie fire of the whole fleet. 

When General Hoke found this to be the situation, he es- 
tablished a line facing the sea, and threw out cavalry on his 
right flank, towards Battery Anderson, wliicli was down the 
beach towards Fort Fisher, about four miles. The intervening 
country here was broken ; and the low places were grown up 
with thick bushes, and were marshy. The purpose of the 
cavalry was to observe the movements, and give the signal of 
the first advance of the enemy towards establishing a line 
across the neck of land to the river, it being the order and 
purpose of General Bragg to have General Hoke attack him as 
soon as he advanced. During the night, however, the enemy, 
passing between the cavalry, and threading their way through 
the thick, marshy undergrowth, made their way to the river, 
and next morning General Hoke found an intrenched line on 
his right flank, extending across the peninsula, from the sea 
to, or near to the river. He succeeded, however, in maintain- 
ing his base at Sugarloaf, immediately changed his line, and 



THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 147 

informed General Bragg of the situation. Then General Bragg 
gave the order to charge the enemy in their works. In the 
mean time, General Hoke had made a close reconnoissance, 
under the fire of the enera}^, and discovered the strength of 
their force and position. On receiving the order to charge 
he communicated the result of his observations, and asked 
General Bragg to reconnoitre in person, which he did ; and 
both of tliese officers concurred that it was not proper to 
assault the lines. It was then determined to re-enforce the 
fort. By this time the enemy, four thousand strong, were 
secure beliind their works ; and the fleet proceeded to bombard 
Fort Fisher, which was done uninterruptedly until Sunday, 
the 15th of January, about six o'clock in the evening. 

At this time the column of assault, numbering about four 
thousand, moved from the enemy's lines, and as they ad- 
vanced, they were plainly' visible from Fort Fisher. But the 
beleaguered garrison was kept close confined within the bomb- 
proofs by the concentrated and continued fire of seven hundred 
guns pouring torrents of shell and missiles on every spot. On 
the land side of Fort Fisher the Confederates had seventeen 
guns — sufficient, could they have been used, to make it impos- 
sible that any force could have advanced under their fire. 
But, as the line of assailants got nearer to the fort, the whole 
fleet concentrated the fire, in richochet shot, on the land side, 
and speedily dismounted every gun ; and this unintermittent 
feu (Tenfer was kept up until the enemy's line was within sixty 
yards of the works. Then it ceased, and with a rnsh and yell 
the charge was made. Captain Braddy commanded the com- 
pany guarding the sally-port. On him the hope of the garri- 
son hung to keep the assailants out until the men and officers, 
who had been packed in the bomb-proofs for fifry-six hours, 
could get out and make ready. This officer and his command, 
it is said, surrendered, and the enemy entered the open gate. 
The Confederates were benumbed and exhausted, and the 
thing was the work of a moment. They were obliged to fall 
back in order to rally. Colonel Lamb brought liis men into 
line near headquarters. General Whiting being present, en- 
couraging and cheering on the troops and creating enthusiasm 
by his ardent heroism. Under these inspiring influences the 
men were brought to the charge. The numbers were against 



148 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 

them in the proportion of four thousand, aided by two thousand 
marines, to two thousand, but they forced the enemy back to 
the mound, and a hand-to-hand fight, of unmitigated despera- 
tion and fury, ensued, continuing from seven to about ten 
o'clock, when bravery, endurance, and devotion failed to over- 
come numbers. The Confederates were overpowered, and the 
work of assault was accomplished ; but not until the enemy 
had paid dearly for his prize. He had not lost a man until he 
entered the fort. 

Thus fell Fort Fisher after a heroic defence. About mid- 
night, General Whiting surrendered himself and his men to 
General Terry as prisoners of war, numbering over eighteen 
hundred, the remainder of his force being killed or wounded. 
The enemy confessed a loss of seven or eight hundred in killed 
and wounded. General Whiting received three wounds in 
the thigh, and thus wounded was fated to languish and die in 
a Yankee prison. 

The fall of Fort Fisher did not clear the way to Wilmington. 
Yet it was decisive of the fate of that city. On the 19th of 
February, Fort Anderson, higher up the river, was evacuated 
under a heavy lire from Porter's fleet, with a co-operating 
Yankee force eight thousand strong, which Schofield had 
moved up from Smithville. The troops were pushed for Wil- 
mington, while at the same time Porter's vessels passed the 
obstructions and steamed, up the river. Wilmington was 
occupied without resistance. The eight or ten thousand Con- 
federate troops there, under the command of General Bragg, 
had been withdrawn towards what was now the dominant 
theatre of the war in the interior of the Carolinas. 

The capture of Wilmington, indeed, had been an arranged 
parallel of Sherman's grand expedition through the Carolinas ; 
it was intended to open still another base of operations towards 
Richmond ; and it proved, in fact, a great element of success in 
that extraordinary march that carried the Yankee banners 
from Savannah to Goldsboro'. To that movement attention 
must now be directed in the logical order of our narrative. 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAB. 149 



SHERMAN S SIXTY DAYS IN THE CAROLINAS. 

About the 16th of January, hardly a month from his entry 
into Savannah, Slierman had reviewed and reorganized liis 
command, but only partially refitted it, owing to delays in for- 
warding the necessary supplies. Appreciating the value of 
time, he hurried forward his preparations, and dispatching 
Howard's wing by water to Beaufort, from whence it penetrated 
up the Pocotaligo, deceived the Confederates into the belief 
that this force was the advance of his army moving upon 
Charleston. The interval between the embarkation of Howard 
at Savannah and his arrival in front of the Branchville and 
Charleston Railroad was well employed by Sherman, who 
marched Slocum's wing towards Augusta, Davis' corps on the 
Georgia side, and William's on the Carolina side of the Savan- 
nah River, to Sister's Ferry, 

The laboiions duty of the campaign commenced with the 
crossing of the Savannah River. The Confederate forces to 
oppose Sherman were scattered all the way from Augusta to 
Charleston ; the design being to guard all the approaches to 
the railway that connected Charleston with the interior. Tliis 
want of concentration was the secret of Sherman's success. 

Early in February, Sherman struck the railroad between 
Branchville and Charleston, compelled the Confederates to 
evacuate Branchville on the 11th of February, and broke up 
the South Carolina Railroad for sixty or seventy miles, thus 
preventing any reinforcements from the west. The left wincr, 
by rapid marches of eighteen miles per day, had made a 
detour far to the left, within thirty miles of Augusta, gained a 
lodgment upon the road, and severed communications. Here 
was a dangerous position for the Confederates; Sherman's 
whole force of cavalry, militia, and veterans at Branchville, 
and Augusta open to capture by a sudden swoop of Kilpat- 
rick's cavalry. That citj', with its arsenals, laboratories, 
machine-shops, rolling stock, and cotton, was too valuable to 
be neglected ; and Cheatham's corps of Hood's army, was 
marched night and day to its relief, arriving there in time to 
find that Sherman had turned the cold shoulder upon Augusta, 



150 THE LAST YKAK OF THE WAR. 

and by a dexterous movement thrown his left wing between 
Hill and the main force in his front. 

Continuing his march north, Sherman entered Orangeburg 
on the 16th of February ; and General Beauregard, who, owing 
to the extraordinary dispersion of the Confederate plan of de- 
fence, had certainly not more than ten thousand men at Co- 
lumbia, was already preparing to evacuate the capital of South 
Carolina. 



THE FALL OF CHAKLESTON. 

In the mean time, the movement of Sherman had already 
been decisive of the fate of Charleston. General Hardee End- 
ing himself flanked at Charleston, and appreciating the instant 
necessity of effecting a junction with Beauregard and Cheat- 
ham, and concentrating all available forces in Sherman^s path, 
resolved to evacuate this city, so famous in the war and so 
long coveted by the Yankees. But he was resolved to leave 
as little as possible for the enemy's rapacity. 

At an early hour of the morning, before the retirement of 
General Hardee's troops, evei-y building, warehouse, or shed, 
stored with cotton, was fired by a guard detailed for the pur- 
pose. The engines were brought out, but with the small force 
at the disposal of the fire department, very little else could be 
done than to keep the surrounding buildings from igniting. 
On the western side of the city the conflagration raged with 
great fury. 

The horrors of the conflagration were heightened by a ter- 
rible catastrophe. It appears some boys had discovered a 
quantity of powder at the depot of the Northwestern Railroad, 
and amused themselves by flinging handfuls of it upon the 
masses of burning cotton in the streets. It was not long before 
the powder running from their hands formed a train upon the 
ground leading from the fire to the main supplies of powder in 
the depot. The result is easily conjectured. A spark ignited 
the powder in the train, there was a leaping, running fire 
along the ground, and then an explosion which shook the city 
to its very foundation from one end to the other. The build- 
ing was, in a second, a whirling mass of ruins, in a tremendous 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 151 

volume of flame and smoke. About two hundred lives were 
lost by the explosion, and not less than one hundred and fifty 
bodies were found charred in that fiery furnace. 

From the depot the fire spread rapidly, and communicating 
with the adjoining buildings, threatened destruction to that 
part of the town. Four squares, embracing the area bounded 
by Chapel, Alexander, Charlotte, and Wasliington-streets, were 
consumed before the conflagration was subdued. 

The destruction of public property in Charleston had been 
as complete as General Hardee could make it. He burned the 
cotton warehouses, arsenals, quartermaster's stores, railroad 
bridges, two iron-clads, and some vessels in the ship-yard. 

Among the captured property were two hundred pieces of 
artillery, spiked and temporarily disabled, as they could not 
be brought oft'. 

The Yankees occupied Charleston on the 18th of February. 
A scarred city, blackened by fire, with evidences of destruction 
and ruin wrought by the enemy at almost every step, had at 
last come into their possession ; but not until a heroic defence 
running through nearly four years, and at last only by the 
stratagem of a march many miles away from it. The appear- 
ance of the city was eloquent of the sacrifice and heroism of its 
people. A Yankee correspondent who had joined in the 
triumphal entry into Charleston thus described the scene be- 
fore his eyes : ^'Not a building for blocks here that is exempt 
from the marks of shot and shell. All have sufl'ered more or 
less. Here is a fine brown-stone bank building, vacant and 
deserted, with great gaping holes in the sides and roof, 
through which the sun shines and the rain pours, windows and 
eashes blown out by exploding shell within, plastering knocked 
down, counters torn up, floors crushed in, and fragments of 
mosaic pavement, broken and crushed, lying around on the 
floor, mingled with bits of statuary, stained glass, and broken 
parts of chandeliers. Ruin within and without, and its neigh- 
bor in no better plight. The churches, St. Michael's and St. 
Philip's, have not escaped the storms of our projectiles. Their 
roofs are perforated, their walls wounded, their pillars demol- 
ished, and within the pews filled with plastering. From Bay- 
etreet, studded with batteries, to Calhoun-street, our shells have 
carried destruction and desolation, and often death with them.'* 



152 THE LAST YiiAR OF THE WAR. 



CAPTURE AND BURNING OF COLUMBIA. 

While the Yankees were making a triumphal entry into the 
burning city of Charleston, a scene yet more terrible and 
dramatic was taking place in the capital of South Carolina. 
General Beauregard had evacuated Columbia in haste. Sher- 
man entered it on the ISth of February. A white flag dis- 
played from the steeple of the City Hall announced the 
surrender of the town. With bands playing, drum-corps 
beating, flags flying, and their men in step, the Yankee army 
marched down Main-street to the Capitol square. 

No sooner had the enemy entered Columbia than a wild and 
savage scene of pillage commenced. Stragglers, " bummers," 
pontoon men, and the rifi'raif of the army were to be met in 
every street and almost every house. If they wanted a pair of 
boots they took them from one's feet. Watches were in con- 
stant demand — in several instances being snatched from tlie 
persons of ladies. Ear and finger-rings were taken by force, 
and, in isolated cases, the dresses of ladies were torn from their 
bodies by villains who expected to find jewels or plate con- 
cealed. Search for silver and provisions was made in every 
conceivable place. Ramrods were used as probes to indicate, 
where boxes were buried ; and gardens, outhouses, cellars, 
garrets, chimneys, and nooks, never thought of by anybody but 
a thief in search of plunder, were turned, so to speak, inside 
out. Eev. Mr. Shand, the Episcopalian clergyman, while con-, 
veying a trunk containing the communion service of silver 
from the church to the South Carolina College, was accosted 
by a Yankee and a negro, who compelled him, under threat of 
death, to give it up. 

The conflagration which destroyed the city commenced 
about dusk. The flre started near the rear of the jail. A 
high wind prevailed, and in a short time the flames were in 
full and unconquerable progress, spreading rapidly in three 
directions — up and down Main-street and eastwardly. From 
ten until three o'clock in the morning the scene was appalling. 
The sky was one broad sheet of flame, above which, amid the 
lurid smoke, drifted in eddying circles a myriad of sparks. 
These falling scattered the conflagration on every side. The 



' THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 153 

monotone of the roaring, leaping, hissing tongues of flame, as 
thej careered on their wild course, alone filled hearts with 
dismay. The air was like that of a furnace. Many of the 
streets were impassable. Frightened men, women, and chil- 
dren ran in all directions, some only to flee again from the fresh 
attacks of the destroying element. Property thrown out of 
houses was either burned or stolen. Many of the Federal 
soldiers, maddened by liquor, dashed through the city with 
lighted torches to inflame the dwellings yet untouched. Morn- 
ing revealed to some extent the broad sweep of destruction. 
Four thousand or more citizens were houseless and homeless. 
From the State-house to Cotton Town, and an average of two 
or three squares on each side of Main-street, nothing but 
blackened ruins remained. Every vestige of the once busy 
street was gone. 

After having completed, as far as possible, the destruction of 
Columbia, Sherman continued his march northward. The 
Seventeenth and Twentieth corps moved in two columns upon 
Winnsboro', thirty miles north, on the Columbia and Cliarlotte 
Railroad ; the Seventeenth destroying the railroad, and twisting 
the rails so that they could not be used again. From Winns- 
boro', where they found many of the refugees from Charleston 
and Columbia, General Sherman sent Kilpatrick's cavalry still 
northward towards Chesterville, to keep up the delusion that 
he was moving on Charlotte, but Sherman himself with his 
main army moved directly eastward, crossing the Catawba or 
Wateree nearly east of Winnsboro', and moving his left wing 
directly towards Cheraw, while the right threatened Florence. 

After leaving Columbia, the rapidly increasing mass of 
refugees, black and white, who followed the army, were org;in- 
ized into an emigrant train, and put under the charge of the 
officers and men who had escaped from the Confedei'ate prisons 
at Salisbury and elsewhere on the route. Under the direction 
of their escort they foraged for themselves, and being supplied 
liberally with horses and mules, wagons and other vehicles, of 
which large numbers were taken along the route, they moved 
on with very little expense or trouble to the army. This 
organization, known as that of "'Sherman's bummers," often 
mixed up with the regular troops of the army, cari-ied devas- 
tation, ruin, and horror along the march. It was said, indeed, 



154 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

that Sherman's march through the Carolinas was tracked by a 
cohimn of smoke, and that stragglers never found any 
difficulty in rejoining the command, when this ghastly evi- 
dence of its march stood constantly in tlie sky. 

At Winnsboro', private dwellings were entered ruthlessly; 
all kind of necessaries and luxuries of life were stolen, and, in 
some cases, helpless women were cursed and threatened to be 
shot if they did not deliver up keys of apartments. This town 
was also fired. Charred ruins n:!et the eye, where once the 
busy feet of men passed in the daily pursuits of life. Wedding- 
rings and mementos of deceased husbands or parents were 
stolen as ruthlessly as gold coin would have been ; watches 
and jewelry were cut from the persons of ladies, and, in some 
instances, their shoes removed on the pretence of searching for 
rings. 

Leaving this town, the enemy took their line of march on 
the State road leading to Blackstocks. , On the route their road 
could be easily distinguished by tall chimneys standing solitarv 
and alone, and blackened embers, as it were, lavinij at their 
feet. Every fine residence, all corn-cribs, smoke-houses, cotton- 
gins — all that could give comfort to man — were committed to 
the fiames ; dead animals — horses, mules, cows, calves, and 
hogs — slain by the enemy, were scattered along the road. The 
railroad track from Winnsboro' to about four bundled yards 
on the other side of Blackstocks was in one mass of ruins. 
Horses and mules that were hid in dense foi-ests were found 
and taken. Corn, fodder, and shucks that the enemy could 
not use were burned ; gentlemen were robbed of what funds 
they had about their pei'son ; watches were jerked from the 
pockets of both male and female; in truth every indignity and 
every insult that could be oft'ered to citizens was perpetrated.* 



* The following are extracts from some private letters giving some; account 
of Sherman's pillagers in the Carolinas : 

" My Dear : Sherman has gone, and terrible has been the storm that has 

swept over us with his coming and going. They deliberately shot two of our 
citizens — murdered them in cold blood— one of them a Mr. Murphy, a wounded 
soldier, Confederate States Army. They hung up three others and one lady, 
merely letting them down just in time to save life, in order to make them tell 
where their valuables were concealed. There was no place, no chamber, 
trimk, drawer, desk, garret, closet, or cellar that was private to their unholy 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAE. 155 

On the 3d of March Sherman occupied Cheraw. The feint 
upon Charh)tte was intended to uncover Fayetteville to Sher- 
man and Goldsboro' to Schofield, wlio, with a large and vic- 
torious army, was sweeping up from the coast witli i-einforce- 

eyes. Their rude hands spared nothing but our lives, and those tliey would 
have taken but they knew that therein they would only accomplish the death 
of a few helpless women and children — they would not in the least degree 
break or bend the spirit of our people. Squad after sqnad unceasingly came 
and went and tramped through the halls and rooms of our house day and 
night during, the entire stay of the army. 

" At our house they killed every chicken, goose, turkey, cow, calf, and every 
living thing, even to our pet dog. Tliey carried off our wagons, carriages, and 
horses, and broke up our buggy, wheelbarrow, garden implements, axes, 
hatchets, hammers, saws, etc., and burned the fences. Our smoke-houses and 
pantry — that a few days ago were well stored with bacon, lard, flour, dried 
fruit, meal, pickles, preserves, etc. — now contain nothing whatever, except a few 
pounds of meal and flour, and five pounds of bacon. They took from old 
men, women, and children alike, every garment of wearing apparel save what 
we had on, not even sparing the napkins of infants ! Blankets, sheets, quilts, 
etc., such as did not suit them to take away, they tore to pieces before our 
eyes. After destroying every thing we had, and taking from us every morsel 
of food (save the pittance I have mentioned), one of these barbarians had to 
add insult to injury by asking me ' what you (I) would live upon now?' I re- 
plied, ' Upon patriotism ; I will exist upon the love of my country as lono' as 
life will last, and then I will die as firm in that love as the everlasting hills.' " 

A lady residing in South Carolina, who was in the enemy's lines for five 
days, writes her experience to a friend in Augusta as follows : 

" Pauline came rushing up to me saying the Yankees had come, 
A hasty glance from the window confirmed her words, and we instantly re- 
treated to aunt's room. This being on the first floor, was speedily filled with 
armed men. At first I very politely unlocked several trunks, assuring them 
that they only contained ladies' apparel, but as the number increased we gladly 
retreated to the sitting-room, where the whole family soon collected. There 
we remained from twelve to six o'clock, while this band of one hundred and 
fifty men ransacked every nook and corner ; breaking open trunks and boxes 
singing, whistling, swearing. Many passed through the room in which we 
were. At first none addressed us. At last one young villain came in, fastened 
the door, demanded our watches, and using the most prc^ane language and 
terrible threats, ordered us to confess where our gold and silver was buried ; 
laid his hands on Pauline's shoulder and mine, while we obediently emptied 

our pockets. They then marched Dr. into the entry, stripped the poor 

old gentleman to the waist, robbing him of the one thousand dollars he had 
succeeded in bringing from his own house, which meanwhile has been laid in 
ashes — so he is homeless. We have lost in silver, china, and o-lass. All our 
blankets, quilts, bowls, and aU the pillow-cases were used as bags to remove 
provisions. Great destruction in clotKing, dresses torn up, etc. Hardly a 
handkerchief in the house." 



156 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

meiits for Sherman, establishing a line of supplies as he 
moved. 

On the afternoon and night of the 6th of March, the Yankee 
army crossed the Great Pedee River in safety, and swept for- 
ward the next day — the main arm}^, in four columns, moving 
on Laurel Hill and Montpelier, Korth Carolina, and the 
cavalry, under Kilpatrick, guarding the extreme left, and 
approaching Rockingham, North Carolina, where they came in 
contact with Butler's division of Wade Hampton's cavalry, 
with which they had some desultory skirmishing. A long and 
heavy rain delayed somewhat the Yankee approach to Fayette- 
ville, but that place was reached on tlie llth of March. 

Some more severe and important fighting than Sherman had 
yet experienced since he and Johnston parted at Atlanta was 
now to take place ; the latter general having been put in com- 
mand of the Confederate forces in the Carolinas. 

On the 10th of March General Wade Hampton approached 
before daylight Kilpatrick's lieadquarters, at Monroe's planta- 
tion, and administered to him a severe lesson, taking guns and 
prisoners. 

At Fayetteville Sherman communicated with Schofield at 
Wilmington. He had fixed upon the vicinity of Goldsboro' as 
the place where he would form a junction with Schofield, and 
the 22d of March as the time — before leaving Savannali — 
and having brought his army thus far in time, he was dis- 
posed to move slowly to allow Schofield time to reach the 
rendezvous. 

On tlie 16th of March General Hardee, with about half a 
corps (Rhett's and Elliot's brigades), was intrenched between 
Black Creek and Cape Fear River, at no great distance from 
the confluence of these streams. This small detachment of 
Confederate force was attacked here by two corps of Sherman's 
veterans, under Slocum, together with Kilpatrick's cavalry. 
The Confederates held their ground with the most determined 
valor. Three different charges of the enemy were repulsed. 
At last, to prevent being flanked. General Hardee had to fall 
back with the loss of two guns. This engagement took place 
at Averysboro', on the Cape Fear River, about lialf-way 
between Raleigh and Fayetteville. Tiie loss of the enemy was 
out of all proportion to our own. General Johnston tele- 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAK. 157 

graphed to Kichmond that the total Confederate loss was four 
hundred and fifty ; that of the Yankees thirty-three hundred. 



THE BATTLE OF BENTONVILLE. 

On the 19th of March a yet more important engagement 
was to occur. It was Johnston's purpose to cripple Sherman, 
if possible, before he could effect a junction with Schofield ; 
and, accordingly, he brought what troops he had in hand by a 
forced march into position at Bentonville, intending to fling 
them upon Sherman's left wing, commanded by Slocum. 

About nine o'clock in the morning the fight commenced. 
On the right. Bate's and Cleburne's division charged and car- 
ried two lines of breastworks, driving the enemy two miles. 
Hill, commanding Lee's corps, and Loring, commanding 
Stewart's corps, did similarly on the left. The Confederates 
fought gallantly. Three guns were taken from the enemy, and 
his whole line pushed back. 

A mile in rear the enemy rallied upon fresh troops, but was 
forced back slowly, until six o'clock p. m., Avhen, receiving 
more troops, he apparently assumed the offensive, which 
movement was resisted without difiiculty until dark. 

During the night the enemy threw up heavy intrenehments, 
and the next morning General Johnston did not think it advis- 
able to renew the attack. The engagement had been a very 
severe one. The total loss of the Confederates was about 
twenty-five hundred. Although they had achieved a success, 
Johnston appears to have been well convinced that he had not 
force sufiicient to cope with Sherman and resist his junction 
with Schofield. On the night («f the 20th the enemy aban- 
doned their works and moved towards Goldsboro'. General 
Johnston then withdrew towards Raleigh. 

In the mean time, Schofield, from jS'ewbern, had entered and 
occupied Goldsboro', and Terry, from Wilmington, had secured 
Cox's bridge crossing, and laid a pontoon bridge across the 
Neuse River. Sherman was thus in the position lie had 
planned more than two months ago in Savannah ; he had 
brought up every part of the combination in perfect order; 
and so far had achieved a success at once brilliant and com- 



158 ■ THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

plete. On the 22d of March he publislied in Goldsboro' a con- 
gratuhatory address to his troops. He said : " After a march 
of the most extraordinary character, nearly five hundred miles, 
over swamps and rivers deemed impassable to others, at the 
most inclement season of the year, and drawing our chief sup- 
plies from a poor and wasted country, we reach our destination 
in good health and condition." 

We must leave Sherman at Goldsboro' — the proper termi- 
nation of his campaign in the Carolinas. The position was 
critical enough for the Confederates. Between Sherman's 
army, augmented by the corps of Schofield and Terry, and the 
army of Grant, the Confederacy was in danger of being 
crushed. The two armies were separated by only one hun- 
dred and fifty miles, and a railroad, which could be rapidly 
put in order, connected them. No sooner had Sherman dis- 
posed his army in camp at Goldsboro' than he hastened to 
City Point, Virginia, for an interview with General Grant and 
President Lincoln. The results of that conference were soon 
to be* known to the Confederacy, and meant any thing else 
than that " peace negotiation" into which some lively imagi- 
nations in Richmond construed this collection of distinguished 
persons. 



THE LAST YEAK OF THE WAR. 159 



CHAPTER X. 

The date of distrust in the Soiitliern mind. — Observation of General Lee. — A pecu- 
liar moral condition of the Confederacy. — Want of confidence in President Davis' 
administration. — Impatience of the prolongation of the war. — Davis' unpopularity. 
— Weak attempts in Congress at a counter-revolution. — General Lee made com- 
mander-in cliief. — The title a nominal one. — The Virginia delegation and the Pres- 
idetit. — Mr. Seddon's resignation. — President Davis' defiance to Congress. — Tlio 
Davis-Johnston imbroglio. — Senator Wigfall's speeches. — Johnston's restoration. 
— President Davis' opinion of homcEopathy. — Sullen and indifferent disposition of 
the Southern people. — How they might have accomplished their independence. — 
Eeview of the military situation. — Analysis of the peace feeling in tlie North. — 
How it was likely to be developed by a long war. — The Union not the enemy's sine 
qica non. — Two contingencies tliat limited the war. — The worthless title of Yankee 
invasion. — " Cob- web" occupation of the Confederacy. — Note: an address in tho 
Eichmond newspapers. — Tiie two fatal facts in the condition of the Confederacy. — 
The Fortress Monroe Commission.— How it was brousrht about. — The. Yankee 
ultimatum. — Official narrative of the Confederate commissioners. — A new attempt 
to rally the spirit of the South. — The meeting at the African church in Eichmond. 
— President Davis' boasts. — Plis noble allusion to history. — How the cause of the 
Confederacy was in danger.— -Proposition to arm the slaves of the South. — 
Indicative of a desperate condition of the public mind.— General Lee's opinion. — 
The slaveholding interest. — Its selfishness and insolence. — A weak conclusion of 
the matter. — "Catching at straws" in the Confederate Congress. — Character of 
this body. 

In the winter of 1S64-5, intelligent minds in the Confed- 
eracy became, for the first time, impressed with the idea that 
its victory and independence were no longer certain conclu- 
sions, and conceived a painful distrust as to the issues of the 
war. 

General Lee, a man who used few words, and had the faculty 
of going directly to the point of a discussion, and putting 
sagacious judgments in plain phrases, once said of the conduct 
of the people of the Confederacy in the war, that " they were 
only half in earnest." But this remark, unlike most of Lee's 
judgments, was only half true. No one can doubt that the 
Confederates had been thoroughly and terribly in earnest in 
the first periods of the war ; and if, in its later periods, they 
appeared to lack earnestness, the truth was they did not lack 
it so much as they did confidence in their rulers, and a dispo- 



160 THE LAST YEAIi OF THE WAK. 

sition to continue the war under an administration, whose 
squanderings and make-sliifts turned all the sacrifices of the 
people to naught. In the later periods of the terrible conflict 
through which the Confederacy had passed, its moral condition 
was peculiar. All confidence in the administration at Hicli- 
mond M'as gone ; the people were heart-broken ; they had been 
cheated too often by the highly colored prophesies of President 
Davis, and those boastful predictions, which are unfailing 
characteristics of the weak mind ; they saw that their sacrifices 
were squandered, and their most patriotic efforts misapplied; 
they were so far demoralized by want of confidence in their 
authorities, and, in some instances, by positive antipathy to 
them, that it may be said that in the last periods of the war, a 
majority of the people of the Confederacy actually deprecated 
any single success, and did not desire a victory to their arms 
which might give a new occasion of prolongation of the war — 
for having already taken it for granted as hopeless, they prayed 
in their hearts that it would be closed at the earliest moment. 
They did not desire the delay of any mere fluctuations of for- 
tune, which they were sure was to be adverse at the last. " If 
failure \vas to ensue, then the sooner the better." Such was 
the phrase of the vulgar judgment which everywhere in the 
Confederacy assailed the ears of nobler and more resolute men. 

Whatever share the maladministration at Richmond may 
have had in producing this public demoralization, it is not to 
be excused entirely on this account. It involved with it much 
that was shameful, for which tlie people had themselves to 
blame, and to charge to the account of their -own disposition 
to let the war lapse to its final conclusions of defeat and ruin. 

For months Mr. Davis had been a President, with nothing at 
his back but a clique of office-holders. The people had be- 
come thoroughly estranged from him. If all did not speak of 
him in terms of derision or hate, there were but few who named 
him without expressions of distrust. But altliougli the country 
was thus thoroughly dissatisfied with Mr. Davis' administra- 
tion, there was not nerve enough in it, not courage enough 
among its public men, to overthrow his rule, or put it under a 
severe and effective check. 

In the first months of 1865 there were introduced in Con- 
gress some partial but remarkable measures to correct the 



THE LAST YEAH OF THE WAR. IGl 

administration. Tliey indicated public sentiment; but tliey 
failed and utterly broke down in their execution, and left 
Davis the defiant and angry master of the field. 

The first of these was an act of the Confederate Congress 
making General Lee commander-in-chief of the armies. Tlie 
intention of this law was never executed. Lee was unwilling 
to accept practically its trust ; he was unwilling, too, to break 
a personal friendsliip with the President ; and so he remained 
in immediate command of tlie Army of Northern Yirginia, and 
Davis continued in the jDractical control of the armies at large, 
without any diminution of liis power or insolence. 

In January, 1865, the Yirginia delegation in the House of 
flepresentatives, headed by Mr. Bocock, the speaker of the 
House, addressed to the President an earnest, bat most respect- 
ful paper, expressing their want of confidence in the capacity 
and services of his cabinet, the members of M-hich for four 
years had been mere figure-heads in Richmond. Mr. Davis 
resented the address as impertinent. Mr. Seddon, tlie secre- 
tary of war, a citizen of Virginia, recognizing the censure as 
coming from Virginians, and, therefore, as peculiarly applicable 
to liimself, and conscious of the excessive unpopularity he had 
incurred in the administration of his office — an ugly little cir- 
cumstance of which had recently come to light, namely, that 
while he had been impressing the grain of tlie Virginia farm- 
ers at nominal prices, lie had sold his own crop of wheat to the 
Government at forty dollars a bushel — insisted upon resigning, 
and thus appeasing the public indignation against himself. 
Ml". Davis opposed this action of his secretary, sought to dis- 
suade him from it; and wlien Mr. Seddon did resign, the Pres- 
ident went out of his way to declare in a letter, published in 
the newspapers, that the event of this resignation would in no 
n^anner change the policy or course of his administration, and 
thus, in words not to be mistaken, threw down his defiance to 
Congress and the country. 

Another point wliich Congress made with the President was 
the restoration of General Joseph E. Johnston to command. 
For weeks in the Confederate Senate, Mr. Wigfall, of Texas — 
a course, heavy man, of large brain, who, under an unsenti- 
mental exterior, possessed more of the courage and fire of the 
orator than any other man in the South — dealt his sledge-ham- 

11 



162 THE LAST YEAR OF TIIK WAE. 

mer blows on the President, who, he dechired, not satisfied 
with persecuting Johnston, was trying to make him the scape- 
goat for his own sins. The debate in the Johnston-Davis im- 
broglio was a memorable one in the dreary annals of the Con- 
federate Congress. The fierce impatience of Mr. Wigfall more 
than once caused him to launch into philippics against the 
President, which most of the Richmond newspapers did not 
dare to report. The President was denounced without mercy, 
"lie was," said Mr. Wigfall, summing up on one occasion his 
points of indictment, " an amalgam of malice and mediocrity." 
The President did restore Johnston ; but under circum- 
stances which made it no concession to the public. To an inti- 
mate friend he remarked with grim humor, tluit "if the people 
wanted to try homoeopathic treatment — sirnilia similihus cur- 
antuT — he would give them another dose of Johns::on." lie 
I'estored this commander, as he well knew, to the conduct of a 
campaign that was already lost ; he put him in command of a 
broken and disorganized force tiiat Sherman had already swept 
before him through two States into the forests of North Caro- 
lina; and Johnston was right when some weeks before he 
wrote to a private friend that he was quite sure that if the 
authorities at Kichmond restored him to command, they were 
resolved not to act towards him in good faith and with proper 
support, but to put him in circumstances where defeat was 
inevitable, and thus confirm to the populace the military judg- 
ment of President Davis. 

The people of the Confederacy, towards the final periods of 
the war, may be said to have looked with folded arms upon 
the sins of its Government, and to have regarded its general 
tendency to disaster and ruin with a sullen disposition to let 
matters take their own course, or with weak and blank despair. 
These sins were not only the fruit of Mr. Davis' violent and 
imperious animosities; they covered the whole conduct of his 
administration, and involved as much the want of capacity as 
that of ofiicial candor and personal impartiality. Everywhere 
the military establishment was falling to decay, and although 
the Confederacy was still full of fighting men and war mate- 
rial, there was nothing but the dregs of its resources at the 
practical command of the Government. 

The most remarkable fact in the later days of the Confed- 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 163 

eracy was, that while tlie conntiy was really capable of fight- 
ing the war indefinitely, and accomplishing its independence, 
if by nothing more, yet surely by the virtue of endurance, it 
had in active employment but the smallest portion of its re- 
sources, and was loitering ou the brink of destruction at a 
time when victory, with jprojper efforts^ was never more surely 
in its grasp. 

To understand this great and melancholy fact in the history 
of the war — that the Confederates, with an abler government 
and a more resolute spirit, might have accomplished their 
independence — we have only to review, with candor, the 
situation as it existed in the opening of the memorable year 
of 1865. 

In the summer of 1864 everywhere the thought of the ISTortli 
was peac^ ; not so much in the newspapers, whose office, 
especially with the Yankees, was rather to disguise public sen- 
timent than to express or apply it ; but in every circle of con- 
versation, and every quarter where men dared to unmask their 
minds and to substitute their true convictions for the stereo- 
types of affectation, there was to be found a real desire for 
peace, which had almost ripened into a popular demand, ready 
to define its terms and resolved to insist upon its concession. 
The Chicago Convention meant peace ; this and that man, 
least suspected of generosity to the Confederacy or of deference 
to truth, privately confessed the war to be a failure ; even Ke- 
publicans of Mr. Lincoln's school, seizing upon certain amiable 
expressions in the Confederate Congress of the summer of 
1864, wanted to know if they might- not mean some accommo- 
dation of the question of the War, and replied to them with 
those affectations of generosity with which the dexterous cow- 
ardice of the Yankee is always ready to cover his sense of 
defeat. 

This disposition of the public mind in the North was easily 
accounted for, when it was closely observed. It was clearly 
not the fruit of any decisive disasters to the Northei-n arras in 
the summer campaign of 1864. But that campaign had been 
negative. Atlanta had not fallen. All the engagements in 
Northern Georgia had not amounted, as Johnston said, to the 
sum of more than one battle, and it was yet doubtful on which 
side to strike the average of success. Richmond was erect and 



164 THE LAST yi;ar of the war. 

defiant; and Lee's army had given new and conspiciioug proofs 
of fortitude at Cold Harbour and Petersburg. Nowhere, then, 
could the enemy find any prospect of the speedy termination 
of the war; and though he had searched every link of tlic 
armor of the Confederacy he had been unable to plant any- 
where a serious wound. It was simply because the enemy's 
campaign was negative; simply in prospect of a prolongation 
of the war that, in midsummer of 186i, the Yankee public 
halted in its opinions and seriously meditated a proposition of 
peace. 

The great lesson which the South was to learn of public 
opinion in the JSTorth was this : that the prospect of a long 
war was quite as snre to obtain the success and independence 
of the Confederacy, as the positive victories of her arms. It 
might not have been so in the first periods of the war, when 
the resolution of tlie enemy was fresh and patient, and the 
Union was then really the apple of his eye. But it was when 
patience had been worn threadbare by promises — when expec- 
tation had stood on tip-toe until it had ached ; when the senti- 
ment of Union had lost all its original inspiration ; when " the 
Union as it was " had become more and more impossible to 
the hopes of the intelligent, and the attempt to realize it had 
fallen from the resolution of a sovereign necessity to a mere 
preference of alternatives — that we find the enemy quite as 
likely to be defeated by the prospect of a prolonged war, as 
by the dint of positive disaster, and, in fact, meditating more 
anxiously the question of Southern endurance, than the imme- 
diate fortunes (^f any military campaign. 

It was a great mistake to suppose that in these later years 
of the war, the North was fighting for the Union as the sine 
qua non^ the indispensable thing. That was the clack of Yan- 
kee newspapers and the drone of demagogues. But the facts 
were to the contrary. It was to be admitted that the North, 
in the development of her resources in the war, and the discov- 
ery contemporary with it of an almost fabulous wealtli in her 
oil regions and mines, and new fields of enterprise .opened 
along the entire slope of the Kocky Mountains, liad obtained 
a confidence which had assured her, among other things, that, 
even apart from the South, she had in herself the elements of 
a irreat national existence. It was this swollen wealth — some 

CD 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 165 

of it the windfalls of a mysterious Providence — which had 
appeased much of that avarice which formed so large a share 
in the Northern desire for the Union. Again, as the war had 
progressed, it had become more and more obvious to countless 
intelligent persons in the North, that it had wasted what was 
most desirable in the Union ; destroyed its esprit i left nothing 
to be recovered but its shadow, and that along with such pal- 
try recovery of a mere name, were to be taken the conse- 
quences of such despotic government as would be necessary to 
hold two hostilized countries under a common I'ule. It was 
thus that the sentiment of the Union had lost much of its 
power in the North. The lirst fervors of the war were scarcely 
now to be discovered among a people wlio had chosen to carry 
on liostilities by the mercenary hands of foreigners and negroes, 
and had devised a s^-stem of substitution — a vicarious M^arfare 
— to an extent that was absolutely without parallel in the his- 
tory of any modern nation. 

All persons in the North, with the exception of some hun- 
dreds, professed that they preferred the Union ; it was a uni- 
versal desire spoken everywhere ; but spoken only as a prefer- 
ence and desire, and no longer as a passion that insisted upon 
an object which it considered death and ruin to dispense with. 
Of all who declared for the Union, but few were ready to tes- 
tify sincerely that they were for it at all hazards and conse- 
quences. Whatever might be the convenient language or the 
fulsome protestation of public opinion in the North, two things 
were certain. 

First, that the North would not insist upon the Union in 
plain prospect of a war indefinitely prolonged. 

And second, that the North would never fight the war be- 
yond that moderate point of success on the part of the South, 
where she would be disposed to accommodate the enemy with 
certain treaty favors which might stand in lieu of the old 
Union, and where she would not be quite confident enough in 
her position to insist upon a severe independence. 

It was thus that the war, on the part of the North, was 
limited by contingencies, which were very far short of decisive 
results one way or the other, and which might ti-anspire even 
without any very signal successes of the Confederate arms. f 

What had been said of the peace movement in the North 



166 TB^- lAST YKAR OF THE WAR. 

in the summer of 1864, before the fall of Atlanta, has its ap- 
plication to the times of which we are now writing. Tliat 
movement was simply the result of a conviction, not that tlio 
South was about to accomplish a positive triumph, but that 
she was able to endure the war much longer than had been 
expected, and yet had not reached that point of confidence 
where she would not be likely to make valuable concessions 
to the North for the early and graceful acknowledgment of 
her independence. That acknowledgment the North was then 
on the eve of making under certain disguises, it is true, of 
party convenience, but none the less certainly because it sought 
decent excuse for the act. The Democratic party was then 
well nigh a unit on the subject of peace. " Burn my letter,'* 
wrote a distinguished politician of New England to a Confed- 
erate then in New York; "but when you get to Richnjond, 
hasten to President Davis, and tell him the Chicago Conven- 
tion means peace, and nothing but peace." It was the mili- 
tary events which followed that interrupted this resolution, 
and showed how little there was of principle or of virtuous 
intention in Yankee parties; and with the fall of Atlanta, Sa- 
vannah, Wilmington, and Charleston, and Sherman's campaign 
of magnificent distances, the Northern mind had again be- 
come inflamed with the fervor of new hopes, and clamored 
for unconditional war, when it thought that it was in the last 
stages of success. 

Yet in face of this clamor it was plain enough that if the 
Confederates could ever regain substarntially nothing more 
than the status quo of seven months ago ; if they could ever 
present to the North the same prospect of a long war as they 
did then, and put before them the weary task of overcoming 
the fortitude of a brave people, they would have peace and 
independence in their grasp. It was a vulgar mistake that to 
accomplish our success in this war we had to retrieve all of 
the past and recover by arms all the separate pieces of our 
territory. It was to be remembered that we were fighting on 
the defensive, and had only to convince the enemy that Ave 
were able to protect the vital points of our country to compel 
him to a, peace in which all was surrendered that he had over- 
run, and all the country that he held by the worthless title of 
invasion, would fall from him as by the lawof gravitation. 



THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 167 

It may be said briefly tliafc if the Confederates could only 
regain the situation of the last summer, or even if they would 
only give a proof to the enemy that they were not at the ex- 
tremity of their resources, or a't the last limits of resolution — 
that they were able and determined to fight the war indefi- 
nitely — they had then accomplished the important and vital 
conditions of peace. Nor was the first impossible — to recover 
substantially, in all important respects, the losses of the past 
few months, and even add to the status qito of last summer new 
elements of advantage for us. To defeat Sherman at any stage 
short of Richmond would be to reoj^eu and recover all the 
country he had overrun. If the enemy was left in possession 
of the seaports, these' had but little value to us as ports of 
entry, and were but picket-po&ts in our system of defences. 
Sherman's campaign clearly came to naught if he could not 
reach Grant — nothing left of it but the brilliant zig-zag of a 
raid vanishino- as heat lio-htnino; in the skies. The conse- 
quences of Sherman's misadventure would be obvious enough. 
Grant's army, without the looked-for aid from the Carolinas, 
was by no means certain of the capture of Kichmond. It was 
true that Grant was within a few miles of the Confederate 
capital, when the same time last year he was on the Rapidan. 
But that was a fool's measure of danger, for in each case we 
had the same army shielding Kichmond, and whether that 
shield was broken ten or one hundred miles away was of no 
importance to the interest it covered. 

There was nothing really desperate in the military situation 
of the Confederac}', unless to fools and cowards who drew lines 
on paper to show how the Yankees were at this place and at 
that jilace, and thought that this cob- web occupation of the 
country, where the enemy had no garrisons and no footliolds, 
indicated the extent of Yankee conquest and gave the true 
measure of the remnant of the Confederacy ! And yet this was 
too much the popular fashion of the time in estimating the 
military situation. Men were drawing for themselves pictures 
of despair out of what were, to those who thought profoundly 
and bravely, no more important than the passages of the hour. 
It is not to be disguised that the condition of the Confederacy 
was demoralized in the extreme, and that it was difficult to re- 
organize, as the patriots of ISGi, men who were now exclaim- 



\ 

168 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAK. 

ino- evcrywliere their despair, and counselling embassies of 
submission.* 

Briefly, if the fatal facts in the condition of the Confede- 

* In Marcli, 1865, the author printed an address in the Eichmond news- 
papers, of which the following was the concluding portion. Ilie occasion and 
sjiirit of this address are significant enough of what was taking place in 
Richmond at that time : 

" I am determined to express the truth, no matter how painfal to myself or 
unwelcome to others. In the first period of this war who was not proud of 
the Confederacy and its heroic figure in history ! Yet now it is to be confessed 
that a large portion of our people have fallen below the standards of history, 
and hold no honorable comparison with other nations that have fought and 
struggled for independence. It is easy for the tongue of the demagogue to trip 
with flattery on the theme of the war ; but when we come to the counsels of 
the intelligent the truth must be told. We are no longer responding to the 
lessons and aspirations of history. You speak of the scarcity of subsistence. 
But Prussia, in lier wars, drained her supplies until black bread was the only 
thing eat in the king's palace ; and yet, under Frederick, she won not only 
her independence, but a position among the five great powers of Europe. You 
speak of the scarcity of men. Yet with a force not greater than that with 
which we have only to hold an invaded country and maintain the defensive,. 
Napoleon fought his splendid career, and completed a circle of victories that 
touched the bomidaries of Europe. 

" It is enough to sicken the heart with shame and vexation that now, v/lien, 
of all times, it is most important to convince the enemy of our resolution — 
now, when such a course, for peculiar reasons, will insure our success — there 
are men who not only whine on the streets about making terms with the 
enemy, but intrude their cowardice into the official places of the Government, 
and, sheltered by secret sessions and confidential conversations, roU the word 
' reconstruction ' under the tongue. Shame upon the Congress that closed its- 
doors that it might better consult of dishonorable things ! Shame upon those 
leaders who should encom-age the i^eople, and yet have broken down their con- 
fidence by private conversations ; and who, while putting in newspapers some 
cheap words of patriotism, yet in the same breath express their despair by a 
suspicious cant about trusting in Providence, and go off to talk submission 
with their intimates in a corner ! Shame upon those of the people who have 
now no other feeling in the war than an exasperated selfishness I who are 
ready to sink, if they can carry down in their hands some little trash of 
property ! who will give their sons to the army, but not their precious negro 
slaves ! who are for hurrying off embassies to the enemy to know at what 
price of dishonor they may pm-chase some paltry remnants of their posses- 
sions ! Do these men ever think of the retributions of history ? 

" When Cato the Younger was pursued to Utica by the victorious arms of 
Caesar, Plutarch relates of him on this occasion certain conversations and senti- 
ments which singularly apply to our own condition in a besieged city, and 
may almost be taken as repeated in the streets of Richmond.: 

" ' One of the Council,' writes Plutarch, ' observed the expediency of a de- 
cree for enfranchising the slaves, and many commended the motion. Cato, 



^ THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 169 

racy at the time of which we write, are to be suinmed up, they 
are simply these : 

1. A want of confidence in the administration of Mr. Davis 



however, said : ' He would not do that, because it was neither just nor lawful ; 
but such as their masters would voluntarily discharge, he would receive, pro- 
vided they were of proper age to bear arms.' This many promised to do ; and 
Cato withdrew, after lia^ang ordered lists to be made out of all that should offer. 
All of the patrician order with great readiness enfranchised and 
armed their slaves ; but as for the three hundred, who dealt in traffic and loans 
of money at high interest, and whose slaves were a considerable part of their 
fortune, the impression which Cato's speech had made upon them did not last 
long. As some bodies readily receive heat, and as easily grow cold again when 
the fire is removed, so the sight of Cato warmed and liberalized these traders ; 
but when they came to consider the matter among themselves, the dread of 
Caesar soon put to flight their reverence for Cato and for virtue. For thus 
they talked : ' What are we, and what is the man whose orders we refuse to 
receive ? Is it not Csesar, into whose hands the whole power of the Roman 
empire is fallen ? And surely none of us is a Scipio, a Pompey, or a Cato. 
Shall we, at a time when their fears make all men entertain sentiments be- 
neath their dignity — shall we, in Utica, fight for the liberty of Rome with a 
man against whom Cato and Pompey the Great durst not make a stand in 
Italy ? Shall we enfranchise our slaves to oppose Giesar, who have no more 
liberty ourselves than that conqueror is pleased to leave us ? Ah ! wretches 
that we are ! Let us at last know ourselves, and send deputies to intercede 
with him for mercy.' .... They told Cato that they had re- 
solved to send deputies to Caesar to intercede first and principally for him. If 
that request should not be granted, they would have no obligation to him for 
any favor to themselves, but as long as they had breath would fight for Cato. 
Cato made his acknowledgments for their regard, and advised them to send 
immediately to intercede for themselves. ' For me,' said he, ' intercede not. 
It is for the conquered to turn suppliants, and for those who have done an in- 
jury to beg pardon. For my part, I have been uuconquered through life, and 
superior in the things I wished to be ; for in justice and honor I am Ctesar's 
superior.' ' 

" The arguments of the traders and thne servers in Utica are not unknown 
in Richmond. But shall we not also find in this city something of the aspira- 
tions of Cato — a determination, even if we are overcome by force, to be uucon- 
quered in spirit, and, in any and all events, to remain superior to the enemy — ^ 
in honor. 

'' I do not speak to you, my countrymen, idle sentimentalism. I firmly be- 
lieve that the great commonwealth of Virginia, and this city, which has a 
peculiar title to whatever there is of good and illustrious report in this war, 
have been recently, and are yet in some measure on the verge of questions 
which involve an interest immeasurably greater than has yet been disclosed in 
this contest — that of their historical and immortal honor, 

" I know — I have had opportunities of informing myself — that there are in- 
fluences at work to place the State of Virginia, in certain contingencies, in 



170 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

— sueli as \vas never before exhibited between a people and its 
rulers in a time of revolution. 



communication with the public enemy, for terms of peace, which cannot be 
otherwise than coupled with the condition of her submission to the Federal 
authority. The extent of this conspiracy against the honor of Virginia has 
been screened by secret'sessions, and been covered up by half-mouthed sugges- 
tions, and the ifs and ands of men who are not yet ready to disclose their cor- 
ruption, and to spit from their lips the rottenness in their hearts. I know the 
fashionable arguments of these men. 'If there is to be a wreck,' say they, 
why not save what we can from it ?" ' Honor,' they say, ' is a mere rhetorical 
laurel ;' ' General Lee talks like a school-girl when he speaks of preferring to 
die on the battle-field to getting the best terms of submission he can ;' ' let us 
be done with this sentimental rubbish, and look to the care of our substantial 
interests.' 

" My friends, this is not rubbish. The glory of history is indifferent to 
events ; it is simply honor. The name of Virginia in this war is historically 
and absolutely more important to us than any other element of the contest ; 
and the .coarse time-server who would sell an immortal title of honor as a 
trifling sentimentalism, and who has constantly in his mouth the phrase of 
' substantial interests,' is the inglorious wretch who laughs at history and 
grovels in the calculations of the brute. 

" Those who have lived entirely in the South since the commencement of 
this war have little idea of the measure of honor which Virginia has obtained 
in it, and the consideration she has secured in the eyes of the world. One 
away from home, finds even in intercourse with our enemies, that the name of 
Virginian is an ornament to him, and that the story of this her heroic 
capital — the record of Richmond — is xmiversally accepted in two hemispheres 
as the most illustrious episode of the war. Honor such as this is not a piece 
of rhetoric or a figure of speech ; it is something to be cherished under all cir- 
cumstances, and to be preserved in all events. 

" It is scarcely necessary to say that I regard subjugation but as the vapor 
of our fears. But if remote possibilities are to be regarded, I have simply to 
say, that in all events and extremities, all chances and catastrophes, I am for 
Virginia going down to history, proudly and starkly, with the title of a subju- 
gated people — a title not inseparable from true glory, and which has often 
claimed 'the admiration of the world — rather than as a people who ever sub- 
mitted, and bartered their honor for the mercy of an enemy — in our case a 
mercy whose pittance would be as a mess of pottage weighed against an im- 
mortal patrimony ! 

" The issue I would put before you is : No submission ; no State negotia- 
tions with the enemy ; no conventions for such objects, however proper for 
others. Let Virginia stand or fall by the fortunes of the Confederate arms, 
with her spotless honor in her hands. 

" If Virginia accepts the virtuous and noble alternative, she saves, in all 
events, her honor, and by the resolution which it implies, may hope to secure 
a positive and glorious victory ; and I, among the humblest of her citizens, will 
be proud to associate myself with a fate which, if not happy, at least can 



THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 171 

2. And as main consequence of that want of confidence, 
when all measures to i-epair it had failed, a general breaking 
down of the public virtue, and the debasement of a people 
who, having lost hope in the existing order — rather the' exist- 
ing disorder — and having no heart for a new experiment, or 
thinking it too late, descend to the condition of time-servers, 
and those who tamely and infamously submit to fortune. 



THE FORTRESS MONROE COIOIISSIOX. 

But another and last appeal was to be made to the reso- 
lution of the South. 

In January, 1S65, Mr. Francis P. Blair, of Maryland, made 
several visits to Richmond, which were the occasion of much 
speculation and curiosity in the public mind. He had gone to 
Richmond with Mr. Lincoln's pass; but the objects of his 
mission were not committed to paper. However, they were 
soon developed. On his return to Washington, Mr. Blair 
showed Mr. Lincoln a letter which President Davis had 
written, stating that Mr. Blair was at liberty to say to Mr. 
Lincoln that Mr. Davis was now, as he always had been, 
willing to send commissii)ners, if assured they would be re- 
ceived, or to receive any that should be sent ; that he was not 
disposed to find obstacles in forms. He would send commis- 
sioners to confer with the Northern Pj-esident with a view to 
the restoration of peace between the two countries, if he could 
be assured they would be received. 

Mr. Lincoln, therefore, on the 18th day of January, ad- 
dressed a note to Mr. Blair, in which, after acknowledging 
that he had read the note of Mr. Davis, he said that he was, 
and always should be, willing to receive any agent that Mr. 
Davis, or any other influential person now actually resisting 
the authority of the Government, might send to confer in- 



never be ignoble. But, if she chooses to submit, and make terms for Yankee 
clemency, the satisfaction will at least remain to me of not sharing in the dis- 
honor of my native State, and of going to other parts of the world, where I 
may say : ' I, too, was a Virginian, but not of those who sold the jewels of her 
history for the baubles and cheats of her conquerors.' " 



173 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

formally with him, with a view to the restoration of peace to 
the people of "our common country." 

In consequence of this notification Pi'esident Davis re- 
quested Vice-President Stephens, Senator Hunter, and Judge 
John A, Campbell, to proceed through the lines to hold a con- 
ference Mnth Mr. Lincoln, or such persons as he might depute 
to represent him. The following report, made by the Confeder- 
ate commissioners, gives the official narrative of the affair : 

Richmond, February 6th. 
To the President of the Confederate States : 

Sir — Under your letter of appointment of commissioners, of the 8th, we 
proceeded to seek an informal conference with Abraham Lincoln, President of 
the United States, upon the subject mentioned in the letter. A conference 
was granted, and took place on the 30th, on board the steamer anchored in 
Hampton Roads, where we met President Lincoln and Hon. Mr. Seward, sec- 
retary of State of the United States. It continued for several hours, and was 
both full and explicit. We learned from them that the message of President 
Lincoln to the Congress of the L~^nited States, in December last, explains clearly 
his sentiments as to the terms, conditions, and mode of proceeding by which 
peace can be secured to the jjeople ; and we were not informed that they would 
be modified or altered to obtain that end. We understood from him that no 
terms or proposals of any treaty or agreements looking to an ultimate settle- 
ment would be entertained or made by him with the authorities of the Con- 
federate States, because that would be recognition of their existence as a sepa- 
rate power, which, under no circumstances, would be done-; and for like rea- 
sons, that no such terms would be entertained by him from the States sepS/- 
rately ; that no extended truce or armistice, as at present advised, would be 
granted or allowed, without the satisfaction or assurance in advance, of the 
complete restoration of the authority of the constitution and laws of the 
United States over all places within the States of the Confederacy ; that 
whatever consequence may follow from the re-establisl'unent of that' author- 
ity, it must be accepted; but all individuals subject to the pains and penalties 
under the laws of the United States, might rely upon a very liberal use of tlie 
power confided to him to remit those pains and penalties if peace be restored. 
During the conference, the proposed amendments to the constitution of the 
United States, adopted by Congress on the 31st, was brought to our notice. 
These amendments provide that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, 
except for crime, should exist within the United States or any place within ita 
jurisdiction, and Congress should have power to enforce the amendment by 
appropriate legislation. Of all the correspondence that preceded the confer- 
ence herein mentioned, and leading to the same, you have heretofore been 
informed. > 

Very respectfully, your obedient servants. 

A. H. Stephens, 
R. M. T. Hunter, 
J. A. Campbell. 

Of the conference Mr, Seward testified that " the Kichmond 



THE LAST TEAR OF THK WAK. 173 

party approached the discussion rather indirectly, and at no 
time did they make categorical demands, or tender formal stip- 
ulations or absolute refusals ; nevertheless, during the confer- 
ence, which lasted four hours, the several points at issue be- 
tween the Government and the insurgents were distinctly 
raised and discussed fully, intelligently, and in an amicable 
spirit. What the insurgent party seemed chiefly to favor was 
a postponement of the question of separation upon which the 
war was waged, and a mutual direction of the efforts of the 
Government, as well as those of the insurgents, to some extra- 
neous policy or scheme for a season, during which passions might 
be expected to subside, and the armies be reduced, and trade 
and intercourse between the people of both sections be resumed." 

The proposition which looked to an armistice or truce was 
distinctly answered by Mr. Lincoln, who stated that he 
would agree to no cessation or suspension of hostilities unless 
on the basis of the disbandment of the Confederate forces. 
There were no notes of the conference. There was no attend- 
ance of clerks or secretaries ; and nothing was written or read. 
But the result of the whole conversation, which was earnest 
and free, may be summarily stated to have shown that tlie 
enemy refused to enter into negotiations with the Confederate 
States, or any of them separately, or give to their ])eople any 
other terms or guarantees than those which Congress might 
grant; or to permit the Southern people to have a vote on any 
other basis than unconditional submission to their rule, coupled 
with the accej^tance of the recent legislation at Washington, 
including an amendment to the Constitution for the emancipa- 
tion of all negro slaves. 

The failure of the Fortress Monroe commission was made 
the occasion in the South of a new attempt to rally the spirit of 
its people, and to infuse into the war a new element of desper- 
ate passion. The people were told that the result of the con- 
ference at Fortress Monroe showed plainly enough that every 
avenue to peace was closed, except such as might be carved 
out by the sword. It was calculated ingeniously enough that 
the i)arty in the South which had so long clamored for nego- 
tiations with Wasnmgton would now atmndon its visions of 
reconciliation and generosity, and give in their adhesion to a 
renewed and even desperate prosecution of the war. 



174 



TIIK LAST YEAR OF THE WAfJ. 



These expectations were not realized. The attempt to raise 
the drooping spirits of the South, and to introduce, as some of 
the public men in Richmond fondly imagined, a new era of 
resolution and devotion in the war, shamefully failed. The 
Fortress Monroe affair produced in the Confederacy a feeble 
flare of excitement which Was soon extinguished. A mass- 
meeting was called' at the African church in Richmond, that 
the people might renew their testimony of devotion to the 
Confederacy. The meeting was held at high noon ; all busi- 
ness in the city of Richmond M-as suspended, as if to give ex- 
traordinary solemnity to the occasion ; fiery addresses were 
made, and tokens of enthusiasm were said in the newspapers 
to have been abundant. But speeches and hurrahs are cheap 
things. The public mind of the South made but a sickly re- 
sponse to what was undoubtedly, in all its circumstances, one 
of the most powerful appeals ever calculated to stir the heart 
and nerve the resolution of a people fighting for liberty ; and 
in its relapse into the abject and timid counsels of the submis- 
sionists, exhibited a want of spirit wliichjit must be confessed, 
must ever make a painful and humiliating page in the history 
of the Confederacy. 

Mr. Davis also spoke at the African church. He did not 
omit the occasion of exhorting the people. But he unfortu- 
nately fell into that style of boastful prediction and bombastic 
speech which was characteristic of all his pul)lic addresses ; 
which was evidence of his weak mind ; and which furnished 
the grave ground of accusation against him that in his public 
declarations he never dealt with the people in a proper spirit 
of candor. He declared that the military affairs of tiie Con- 
federacy were in excellent condition ; he hinted at great vic- 
tories which were about to be accomplished ; he boasted that 
'' Sherman's march through Georgia would be his last ;" he 
completed his rhetorical flourish with the strange prediction 
that before the summer solstice fell upon the country it would 
be the Yankees who would be asking for terms of peace and 
the grace of conferences in which the Confederates might 
make known their demands. 

But in this unfortunate address of the President there was 
one just and remarkable sentiment. He referred to the judg- 
ment of history upon Kossuth, who had been so weak as to 



I THE LAST TEAK OF THE WAK. 175 

abandon the canse of Hnngary with an army of thirty tliouRmid 
men in the field ; and spoke of the disgrace of snrrender, if the 
Confederates should abandon their cause with an army on our 
side and actually in the field more numerous tlian those which 
had made the most brilliant pages in European history ; an 
army more numerous than that with which Napoleon achieved 
his reputation ; an army standing among its homesteads; an 
army iti which each individual man was superior in every 
martial quality to each individual man in the ranks of the 
invader, and reared with ideas of independence, and in the 
habits of command 1 

It was very clear that the Confederacy was very far from 
the histoi'ical necessity of subjugation. But it was at anytime 
near the catastrophe of a panic. If the cause was to be lost, 
it was to be so by weak despair ; by the cowardice of suicide; 
by the distress of weak minds. 



PEOrOSITION TO ARM THE SLAVES OF THE SOUTH. 

A measure indicative of the desperate condition of thp South- 
ern mind was that to extend the conscription to the slaves. 
A proposition to arm the negroes of the South, and use them 
as soldiers in the Confederate Army, had been debated in the 
Richmond press as early as the fall of 1864. It was favored 
by General Lee, but variously received by the general public. 
There were many persons who argued that the negro might be 
effectively used in this new department of service ; that mili- 
tary experience had shown that a soldier could be made of 
any thing that had arms and legs; that the United States had 
formerly recruited its regular army from the dregs of human- 
ity; that the experience of the North with the negro had 
shown him to be a serviceable soldier; and that the South 
could offer him superior inducements to good service, by mak- 
ing him a freeman in his own home, and could give him offi- 
cers who could better understand his nature, and better pi-ompt 
his good qualities, tiian his Yankee militaiy taskmasters. 
These views were encouraged by General Lee. Indeed, this 
distinguished officer made no secret of his opinion, that the 
military service of the slave should be secured on the basis of 



1Y6 THE LAST TEAR OF THE "WAK. 

general emancipation ; arguing, with no little ingennitv. that 
the institution of slavery had been so shaken by the invasions 
and raids of the enemy, which had penetrated every portion 
of the country-, that its practical value had become ])nt a small 
consideration in view of the insecure tenure of the property ; 
that it might, eventually, be broken up if tlie war continued ; 
and that, by a decree of emancipation, the South might make 
a virtue of necessity, remove a cause of estrangement, however 
unjust, between it and the Christian world, and possibly neu- 
tralize that large party in the North, whose sympathy and 
interest in the war were mainly emploj^ed with tlie negro. 

The question divided the couiitry. The slaveholding inter- 
est, in its nsual narrow spirit — in its old character of a greedy, 
vulgar, insolent aristocracy — took the alarm, and in Congress 
and in the newspapers, proclaimed that the use of negroes as 
soldiers was the entering wedge of Abolition; that it would 
stultify the whole cause of the Confederacy ; that it would 
give up what they falsely imagined to be the leading object 
of the war — the protection of the interests of less than a 
quarter of a million of people Mdio owned slaves in the South. 
The Charleston Mercury declared that if the slaves were 
armed, Soutli Carolina could no longer have any interest in 
prosecuting the war. 

But beyond the opposition of the slaveholders and the cotton 
aristocrats, there were many intelligent men in the South who 
seriousl}'' doubted both the capacity and fidelity of the ne^ro 
as a Confederate soldier. General Lee and many of "his dis- 
tinguished officers were not among these. 

A majority of the Confederate Army were probably in favor 
of the experiment of negro soldiers; and many who doubted 
their efficiency at the front were persuaded that they might be 
made useful in other parts of the military field. General 
Ewell, who commanded in the Department of Henrico, declared 
that the employment of the negroes in the trenches, aroimd 
Hichmond, would relieve fifteen thousand white soldiers, who 
miglit be used on the enemy's front, and thus make an import- 
ant accession to our forces actually in the field. 

The action of the Confederate Conj^ress with reference to 
the military employment of the negro was characteristic of 
that body. The subject was debated threadbare, discussed 



THE LAST YEAE OF THE WAR. 177 

and dissected in open and secret session ; but no practical 
action conld be obtained on the matter, but what was too h^tc 
in respect of time, and absurdly small with reference to the 
measure of the necessities by which legislation on the subject 
had been invoked. 

Congress took no action on the subject until at the heel of 
its session. A bill was passed on the 7th of March authoriz- 
ing the President to ask and accept from the owners of negro 
slaves as many able-bodied negroes as he might deem expedi- 
ent, to perfoi'm military service in any capacity he might 
direct, and providing that nothing in the act should be con- 
strued to alter the existing relation between master and slaves. 

The entire results of this ridiculously small and visionary 
legislation, which proposed to obtain negro soldiers from such 
volunteers as their masters might j^atriotically dedicate to the 
Confederate service, and was ominously silent on the subject 
of their freedom, were two fancy companies raised in the city 
of liichmond, who were allowed to give balls at the Libby, 
and to 23arade in Capitol Square, and were scarcely inteu'ded 
to be more than decoys to obtain sable recruits. But they 
served not even this purpose. The measure passed by Con- 
gress may be taken, indeed, as an indication of that vague des- 
peration in the Confederacy which cauglit at straws, and had 
not nerve enough to make a practical and persistent effort at 
safety. 

The Congress of the Confederate States was a weak, spas- 
modic body. There was no organization of opinion in it ; no 
leaders ; plenty of idle debate, capricious measures, weak re- 
crimination, and but little of the sense and order of legislative 
assemblies. It went in and out of secret session almost every 
twenty-four hours ; it was fruitful of propositions without 
results; and it finally adjourned on the 18th of March, after 
a session of four months, in which it had failed to enact any 
effective measure to i-ecruit the army, to improve the finances, 
to mobilize the subsistence of the country, or, in fact, to serve 
one single important- interest in the Confederacy. 

13 



178 THE LAST YEAR OF TUE WAR. 



CHAPTER XL 

The last address and appeal of the Confederate Congress.— The war in a geographical 
point of view. — The Confederate Congress and President Davis. — The execu- 
tive DEPAUTMENTS. — A sharp recrimination. — A committee of the Senate reply to 
President Davis.— Maladministration in the War Department.— Two-thirds of the 
Confederate Army absentees. — Lee loses nearly half his army by desertions. — The 
other half threatened with starvation.— Ample supply of food in the country. — 
The fault in the Commissary Department. — Commissary Northrop a "pepper-doc- 
tor" as the favorite of Davis. — Analysis of President Davis' character for firmness. 
— IIow Northrop starved Kichmond. — History of the Confederate Commissa- 
HiAT.^Secret testimony in Congress. — President Davis' refusal to trade cotton for 
meat. — Persistent delusion about "king cotton." — Venality of the enemy. — Davis 
takes no advantage of it. — Record of the rations in Lee's army. — Startling statis- 
tics. — Attempts to ^et meat from Europe. — General Lee's army without meat.— 
His telegram to President Davis. — The necessities of the Commissary Department 
summed up in secret session of Congress. — But little done to meet them. — How the 
cause of the Confederacy would have failed without a catastrophe of arms. — Tlie 
military narrative resumed. — Military events in Virginia in the winter of 
1864-5.— Sheridan's raid. — Thirteen counties traversed. — Amount of destruction 
accomplished by the enemy. — The Eichmond lines.— Hatcher's Eun. — Extension 
of Grant's line. — Battle of Hares Hill. — Gallantry of Gordon's command. — 
Vigor and brilliancy of the fighting of the Confederates. — No decisive results. 

On the occasion of "what was to be its final adjournment, 
Congress published an address to the people of the Confederate 
States. It was more prolix than other documents of this sort, 
liut it contained one just and admirable reflection, to whicli 
we have ah-ead}^ referred in the pages of the preceding chapter. 

It said: "The extent of our territory, the food-producing 
capacity of our soil, the amount and character of our popula- 
tion, are elements of strengtli which, carefully husbanded and 
wisely employed, are amply sufficient to insure our final tri- 
umph. The passage of liostile armies through our country, 
though productive of cruel suifering to our people, and great- 
pecuniary loss, gives the enemy no permanent advantage or 
foothold. To subjugate a country, its civil government must 
be suppressed by a continuing military force, or supplanted by 
another, to which the inhabitants yield a voluntary or forced 



THE LAST YEAK OF THE WAR. 179 

obedience. The passage of hostile armies through our territory 
cannot produce this result. Permanent garrisons would have 
to be stationed at a sufficient number of points to strangle all 
civil government before it could be pretended, even by the 
United States Government itself, that its authority was ex- 
tended over these States. How many garrisons would, it re- 
quire ? How many hundred thousand soldiers would suffice 
to suppress the civil government of all the States of the Con- 
federacy, and to establish over them, even in name and. form, 
the authority of the United States? In a geograpTiical 'point 
of view, therefore, it may he asserted that the conquest of these 
Confederate States is impracticable.^^ 



THE CONFEDERATE CONGRESS AND PRESIDENT DAVIS. THE EXEC- 
UTIVE DEPARTMENTS. 

The last Confederate Congress concluded with a sharp re- 
crimination between it and President Davis as to the responsi- 
bilit}'- for the low state to which the public defence had lapsed. 
The President had charged, in a public message, that the meas- 
ures of Congress for recruiting the army were insufficient, and 
that it had generally neglected to supply the urgent need of 
men and supplies for the army. 

A committee of the Senate made an elaborate reply to this 
accusation. It declared that all the measures recommended 
by the President, to promote the efficiency of the army, ^lad 
been adopted, except the entire repeal of class exemption ; and 
that some measures not suggested by him — such as the creation 
of general-in-chief — were originated and passed by Congress, 
with a view to the restoration of public confidence and the 
energetic administration of military affairs. 

The committee retorted upon the executive the chai'ge that 
by a. system of details, in which corruption and favor were 
dominant, the Conscription Law had been robbed of its legiti- 
mate fruits, and the army enfeebled. They said that in re- 
markable contrast to the number of persons relieved from 
military service by the exemptions enacted by Congress, the 
report of the Conscript Bureau exhibited the fact, that east of 
the Mississippi Kiver, twenty-two thousand and thirty-five men 



180 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 

had been detailed by executive authority. It was, they de- 
clared, in consequence of this abuse of the power of detail, 
that Congress had passed an act revoking all details, and lim- 
iting the exercise of that power in the future. 

We shall not go at large into the merits of this recrimina- 
tion between the Confederate Congress and the executive. 
Each, undoubtedly, had its share of responsibility for the 
general improvidence and mismanagement that had fatally 
involved the fortunes of the Confederacy. But the mal-admin- 
istration in the War Department was even greater than Con- 
gress chose to indicate. From that department the confession 
bad repeatedly gone forth, that two-thirds of our army were 
absentees ; and yet nothing was done to enforce discipline or 
to punish desertions, and the morale of the Confederate Army 
was left entirely to the regulation of loose patriotic sentiment 
among those who composed it, No more forcible commentary 
can be made on the feeble execution of the military laws of 
the Confederacy, and the omission of the most ordinary disci- 
pline in the arnjy, than to state the simple and indisputable 
fact that in the winter of 1864-5 Lee lost neai'ly half his anny 
by desertions alone. 

And that half was frequently in a condition bordering on 
starvation. There was really no lack of supplies in the coun- 
try. It is needless to go into details, or to adduce statistics in 
proof of this. It is obvious to every well-informed mind. 
Although the occupation by the enemy, and his ruthless policy 
of destroying the harvests, granaries, and agricultural imple- 
ments of the people, wherever he moved, had, undoubtedly, 
diminished the amount of cereals in ihe South, still, in view of 
the fact that in eviivj State of the Confederacy without excep- 
tion, its agricultural labor had been devoted almost exclusively 
to the raising of breadstuffs (while before the war it was mainly 
devoted to the production of cotton, tobacco, and other ex- 
ports), it was impossible to doubt that there was ample supply 
of food in the country. 

The fault was in the Commissary Department at Richmond ; 
where a man flagrantly incompetent, appointed to the most 
important post in the country, on no other ground of selection 
than that many years ago he had been the college chum of the 
President, seemed busy for almost four years in bearing down 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAE. ISl 

all common sense and advice, practising the most ridiculous 
quackeries, and stifling the very life of the Confederacy. 

It is a remarkable fact in history that many famous men 
who have prided themselves on their firmness and resolution 
in public affairs, and indeed have displajed these qualities to 
the generality of mankind, have yet been discovered to bo 
under the dominion of the most paltry influences — in many 
instances governed by women, court-jesters, and the smallest 
of favorites. Such an apparent contradiction of character was 
to be found in President Davis. He could brace his mind and 
set his face against Congressmen and counsellors generally. 
But he was absurdly uxorious; he was surrounded by adven- 
turers and " confidence-men ;" and some old West Point or 
Washington acquaintance might readily obtain his car and 
favur when they were denied to the first men of the Confed- 
eracy. 

Commissary Northrop, whose profession Mr. Foote declared 
in Congress had been that of a " pepper doctor," was one of 
the small favorites of President Davis. This old man was an 
extraordinary combination of ignorance and obstinacy ; and 
it was remarked of him that such was his perversity, that 
whenever advice or suggestion was offered to him, he instantly 
and invariably took the precisely opposite course. 

Kichmond was now almost destitute of supplies, through the 
mismanagement and conceit of this man. Ilis latest fancj^ had 
been to prohibit to the general public the importation of any 
supplies whatever into the Confederate capital. The farmer 
could not bring a bushel of corn or a pound of meat into 
Richmond without running the gauntlet of impressment 
agents. Permits to get flour into Richmond were valued at 
high figures, and obtained only through special favors. The 
consequences of Mr. Northrop's folly were, that large stocks of 
supplies were kept at home in difi'erent parts of the interior of 
Virginia ; that they were thus exposed to Yankee devastation, 
and, in time, became an easy prey of the enemy's raids. It 
was through such mismanagement that the rich harvests of the 
Shenandoah were lost to the Confederacy. There had been 
ample time to have gathered into Richmond at least a large 
portion of these rich and accessible supplies. Numerous per- 
sons had gone to Commissary Northrop with the proj^osition 



182 THE LAST YKAR OF THE WAK. 

to bring into Richmond grain and flour from the Yalley, and 
were willing to make the condition that any part of their 
stocks would be given up to the Government, whenever there 
was any occasion for it to encroach upon the private store- 
houses of Richmond. But Mr. Kortlirop closed the door to 
all such applications, and the commission houses and provision 
stores of Richmond were left almost empty ; while the law of 
supply and demand was sending prices up far beyond the 
reach of the general customer. 



HISTORY OF THE CONFEDERATE COlfMISSARIAT. 

In the last Congress of the Confederate States, a secret com- 
mission was appointed to investigate the affairs of the Com- 
missary Department. There was thus obtained within closed 
doors a mass of testimony which covered the whole history of 
the commissariat, and contains, indeed, subjects of the great- 
est interest in the war. This testimony was never permitted 
to see the light in the Confederacy ; probably because it so 
deeply involved President Davis and his associates in the 
charge of maladministration. 

It appeared before the secret commission that as early as 
the second year of the war, the meat supplies of the Confed- 
eracy were discovered to be largely deficient. This became 
evident enough on the successive captures of Forts Donelson 
and Henry. The subsequent campaign lost us Kentucky and 
much of Tennessee, and left us comparatively bare of meat. 

At this time a number of propositions were made to the 
Richmond authorities, by responsible parties, to exchange 
through the enemy's lines meat for cotton. One man, whose 
ability to meet his engagements was never questioned, offered 
to deliver thirty thousand hogsheads of bacon through the 
lines in exchange for cotton. It was urged that there was 
enough cotton to feed and clothe our army, in a section tribu- 
tary to Memphis — which city was then, and had been for some 
time previous, in the secure possession of the enemy ; that 
such cotton must otherwise probably be destroyed, to j^revent 
its falling into the hands of the enemy ; but that the owners, 
as a general rule, though willing to let the Government have 



THE LAST YEAK OF THE WAR. 183 

their crops, were averse, if not stubbornly opposed, to having 
them destroyed. 

Against every proposition to get meat through the inland 
military lines, President Davis set his face as flint. He had 
got an idea into his head that the enemy's finances were about 
to collapse, and that if a little cotton might be kept from them, 
they would be unable to pay the January interest of 1863. 
It appears, indeed, to have been impossible for him and his 
associates to rid themselves of their early conceit of the power 
of cotton ; and it was this wretched delusion in hoarding this 
inert wealth of the South, that did moi'e than any thing else to 
wreck the finances of the Confederacy, and eventually to 
reduce the rations of its armies to one-quarter of a pound of 
meat a day per man. 

The venality of the enemy aflorded full o])portunity to the 
Richmond authorities to use the Mississippi from Memphis to 
New Orleans, until all their needed supplies should be ob- 
tained. But no advantage was ever taken of this ample and 
obvious opportunity. The arguments used against trade in 
cotton through the lines were : 

First — That the Federal finances were in such a condition 
that if they could not obtain cotton, upon which to draw bills 
wherewith to pay their then accruing interest, their credit 
would explode, and the war would speedily cease from the 
bankrupting of our assailants. Hence they wanted cotton. 

Second — That they did not want cotton, but only sought, 
under cover of a contract for supply, to find out the channels 
of navigable streams, to ascertain the location and condition 
of certain defences, and otherwise to spy out the land. 

Third — That the trade on the part of the Government would 
demoralize the people among whom it miglit be conducted. 

Fourth — That to trade through Is^ew Orleans, and let cotton 
clear from that port, " would nuike Europe think we had caved, 
who thereupon would decline to recognize us, or to intervene." 

The reader will recognize fur himself the little value of these 
arguments — some of them childish — by the side of the great 
necessity of feeding the armies of the South. 

The record of the narrow escapes of Lee's army alone from 
starvation, is sufiicient commentary upon the management at 
Kichmond. In consequence of the refusal to be allowed to 



184 TUE LAST YEAE OF THE WAK. 

purchase on the Mississippi, the army, especially iii Yirginia, 
was put upon short rations. First, they were reduced to one- 
half pound of meat per day, — which, if it could have been 
kept up at that, would have been sufficient ; then to one-third 
of a pound — though this allowance was not agreed to or ad- 
hered to by several of the generals commanding ; and then to> 
one-quarter of a pound. Upon this last allowance the Army 
of Northern Virginia wintered in 1864-5. 

On the 18th of October, 1864, a memorandum was commu- 
nicated to President Davis, showing that there were on hand 
in the Confederate States 4,105,048 rations of fresh meat,, 
and 3,426,519 rations of bacon and pork, which would 
subsist three hundred thousand men twenty-five days. The 
authorities were now compelled to subsist, independent of 
the armies of the Confederacy, many thousand prisoners ot 
war who were collected in diJSerent camps throughout the 
country. 

In 1863 a feeble and badly organized attempt had been 
made to get meat from Euro^ie through the blockade. Much 
of it was allowed to remain at Nassau and Bermuda until it 
spoiled. Contracts for supplies, payable in cotton in our At- 
lantic ports, were made with several parties; but in no instance 
with success. Either the amount involved was too small, to 
tempt the venality of those who could control or purchase an 
evasion of the blockade ; or the engagement to deliver meat 
alone, was found to be too small an inducement to those en- 
gaged in blockade-running. 

In the winter of 1864 the- subsistence of the Confederate 
armies appeared to be in the last stages of exhaustion. Major 
Ruffin, assistant-commissary-general, testifies before a secret 
committee of Congress : 

" On the 5th of December I brought tlie condition of things 
to the attention of the Secretary of War, coupling it with a 
statement of subsistence on hand, which showed nine days' 
rations on hand for General Lee's army ; and, quoting his let- 
ter to the commissary-general, that day received, stating that 
his men were deserting on account of short rations, I urged 
prompt action ; but none was taken. On the 14th of Decem- 
ber, nine days afterwards. General Lee telegraph;! Mr. Davis 
that his army was without meat." 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 185 

III January, 1865, the following points were presented in 
secret session of Congress : 

First — That there was not meat enough in the Sonthern 
Confederacy for the armies it had in the field. 

Second — That there was not in Virginia either meat or bread 
enough for the armies within her limits. 

Third — That the bread supply from other places depended 
absohitely upon the keeping open the railroad connections of 
tlie South. 

Fourth — That the meat must be obtained from abroad 
through a seaport, and by a different system from that whicli 
has heretofore prevailed. 

Fifth — That the bread could not be had by impressment, 
but must be paid for in market rates. 

Sixth — That the payment must be made in cash, whicli, so 
far, had not been furnished; and, if possible, in a better medi- 
um than treasury scrip. 

Seventh — That the transportation was not adequate, from 
whatever cause, to meet the necessary demands of the service. 

Eighth — That the supply of fresh meat to General Lee's 
army was precarious; and if the army fell back from Richmond 
and Petersburg, there was every probability that it would cease 
altogether. 

Nothing was done by the Confederate Government com- 
mensurate with the necessities indicated above — nothing, in 
fact, done to meet them beyond a visionary scheme, enacted in 
the last days of Congress, to raise three millions in specie to 
purchase supplies from those producers of the Confederacy 
who were no longer* willing to take scrip for tlieir commodi- 
ties. But few persons outside of official circles in the Confed- 
eracy were acquainted with the true state of affairs; so hedged 
in with secrecy w^as the weak and recluse government of Mr. 
Davis. To the well-informed and intelligent the appalling 
fact was manifest — that the whole system of Confederate de- 
fence was hound to hreak down hy sheer mismanagement in 
the commissariat^ even xoithout a catastrophe of arms. 

Before we reach the final and sudden catastrophe that was 
to befall the arms of the Confederacy, there is a slight space 
in our military narrative which we have to cover by a brief 
relation of the events of the war iu Yirg-inia in the winter of 



186 TUK LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

1864-5. Tliis record is a very slender one. But it is tlie pi-cf- 
ace, in point of time at least, to those great events which, in 
April, 1865, were to bring the war to a singularly abrupt close, 
and with a precipitation heretofore but little known in the 
history of great contests. 



military events in virginia in the winter of 1864—5 

Sheridan's raid. 

Our last reference to the campaign in the Yalley of Yir- 
ginia was, when the forces there had been much reduced and 
the scale of operations had become inconsiderable ; the bulk 
of Early's troops having been withdrawn to General Lee's 
lines. Sheridan, too, had sent most of his infantry to Grant. 
In December, the Sixth Corps was returned to the Army of 
the Potomac ; and the Army of the Shenandoah for nearly two 
months acted principally as an army of observation. 

Towards the last of February, 1865, Sheridan began to " ride" 
again up the Yalley of the Shenandoah, leaving Hancock in 
command of his department at Winchester. On reachhig 
Waynesboro' a battle occurred between Early and Custer's 
divisions, which resulted in the rout of the Confederates. 
Sheridan captured about thirteen hundred prisoners — nearly 
all of Early's little command ; which indeed fell an easy prey 
to the magnificent Yankee cavalry. Early himself escaped 
with difficulty, some of his staflf-officers and his personal bag- 
gage being captured. 

Charlottesville was surrendered the next day. Fron-i this 
point, on the 6th of March, Sheridan moved in two columns 
southward towards the James. One division, nnder General 
Deven, took a directly southern route to Scottsville, destroying- 
all mills, merchandise, and bridges on the line of nuirch, and 
along the Rivanna River to Columbia. The other division 
proceeded down on the railroad to Lynchburg, destroying it 
as far as Amherst — a distance of over forty miles. From 
Scottsville, Deven's division proceeded westward along the 
banks of the James, destroying every lock on the canal as far 
as Dugaldsville, twenty miles from Lynchburg. Not being 
able to cross the James on account of the high water. Slier idau 



THE LAST YEAE OF THE WAE. 1S7 

moved around the north side of Richmond, and, crossing at 
Deep Bottom, joined General Meade's army south of Peters- 
burg. 

The destruction accomplislied by this raid was serious 
enough. The country through which it passed was devastated, 
and a Yankee correspondent, who accompanied the expedition, 
boasted that two million dollars worth of provisions and war 
material were destroyed in a single day. The damage to the 
Kanawha and James Kiver Canal was almost irreparable; as 
to the railroads between Waynesboro' and Charlottesville, 
Charlottesville and Amherst Court-house, and Louisa Court- 
house, and the South Anna, and between Chesterfield Station 
and the Chickahominy River, every bridge, nearly eveiy cul- 
vert, and scores of miles of the rail itself, had been completely 
destroyed ; and in thirteen counties traversed by the expedi- 
tion, mills of various kinds, tobacco warehouses, manufactured 
and leaf tobacco, and various other descriptions of private 
property were pillaged or destroyed. 



THE RICHMOND LINES HATCHER S RTTJST. 

On the lines around Richmond and Petersburg, during the 
winter of 1864—5, there were no very important events. Two 
very considerable engagements were fought on them in this 
time ; but they were wholly indecisive and strangely barren 
of results commensurate with the scale of fighting. Pegram's 
division, of Lee's army, whilst reconnoitring on the morning 
of the 6th of February, was attacked by cavalry and infantry 
in heavy force. The enemy's cavalry at one time broke 
through one of his brigades, but the men fought them all the 
while. Capturing some in rear of our lines, driving the others 
off, the division was pressed slowly back, occupying a very 
long line, but fighting obstinately, under the direction of its 
gallant commander. 

Evans, commanding Gordon's division, arrived, and was 
formed on the left. The two divisions now charged, and drove 
the enemy back. They were finally overpowered, and driven 
back a short distance ; but reforming, charged again and 
again. 



188 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAK. 

The battle raged fiercely for hours over a space of ground 
not more than live hundred yards in v^idth. Every effort of 
the Yankees to break through the Confederate lines was re- 
pulsed. Mahone's division came up and reported late in the 
afternoon, and was formed between the other two, when the 
three divisions made a most spirited advance and drove the 
enemy in the greatest disorder from the field to his fortifica- 
tions on Hatcher's Run, The pursuit was continued until 
after dark. General Pegram fell in the last charge, just be- 
fore Mahone's division came up. 

The enemy kept his position on Hatcher's Run, which pro- 
longed his line, but did not advance it in the direction of Pe- 
tersburg. The advantage of this extension was even question- 
able ; and after this important movement quiet was resumed 
on the Richmond lines, unbroken by any remarkable incident 
for several weeks. 



BATTLE OF HAKE S HILL. 

At daylight, on the 25th of March, General Lee suddenly 
attacked Grant's lines south of the Appomattox. The attack 
was immediately directed by General Gordo-n on the enemy's 
works at Hare's Hill. But there is no doubt that General 
Lee's plan was more extensive ; that his design was to follow 
up the first success by the capture of the neighboring works, 
and then making the line a part of his own, to command 
Grant's military railroad. If his success should be all that 
he hoped, he might even venture to cut Grant's entire left 
from its base at City Point and from the army north of the 
James. 

About four o'clock in the morning, every thing being in 
readiness, the corps of sharpshooters, about two hundred and. 
fifty strong, left our works, and, with empty guns, advanced 
stealthily but rapidly upon the enemy's positions. They fell 
like a thunder-clap upon the Yankees, behind the first line of 
works they struck, clubbing such as they found awake with 
their muskets, taking a good many prisoners, and capturing 
several hundred yards of breastworks. Not a musket was 
fired, and not a man injured on our side. Meantime the 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAK. 189 

several brigades massed, both to support and assist them, came 
np, and the formidable force on Hare's Hill, with a consider- 
able portion of the heavy line of works adjoining and connect- 
ing with it, were charged and captured, additional prisoners 
and numerous mortars and guns falling into our hands. Un- 
fortunately some of the Yankees, who had escaped in the dark- 
ness, fled and aroused the men in the rear line of works; and 
the alarm was quickly spread throughout the reserve camps 
behind, so that a formidable force was soon alert. By the 
time our froops had formed into line on either side of the cap- 
tured fort the enemy was thoroughly aroused, and was pre- 
pared for further offensive operations on our side; otherwise 
the advance of our troops would have been irresistible and 
successful beyond anticipation. As it was, they came into a 
position subject to an enfilading fire on either side, and con- 
fronted by heavy forts and breastworks. The Yankees were 
not slow to take advantage of the opportunity thus afforded 
them, and they quickly massed artillery in the neighboring 
forts and infantry in our front. They made several fierce 
assaults upon our columns in heavy lines, which were repulsed 
with great coolness and vigor; and in which, it is believed, the 
enemy sustained much loss. Finding it impossible to dislodge 
the Confederates by their infantry attacks, the enemy opened 
upon them with their artillery. A battery on the river, and 
Tort Steadman on the right, both so situated as thoroughly to 
command and enfilade the captured fort and works, belched 
forth their terrible discharges of shell, grape, and canister into 
our ranks, and rendered the position almost untenable. Fur- 
ther advance by our troops, in the face of the terrible obsta- 
cles that presented themselves, was deemed impracticable, and 
General Gordon gave the command to retire. 

The success of tlie day was incomplete, and of but lit^e 
value, although Gordon had shown the greatest gallantry, and 
the Confederates had fought with a vigor and brilliancy that 
reminded one of Lee's old campaigns. They had swept the 
enemy's lines for a distance of four or five hundred yards to 
the right and left, and two efforts made to i-ecover the cap- 
tured works had been handsomely repulsed. It was only 
when it was found that the inclosed works in rear, command- 
ing the enemy's main line, could only be taken at a great 



190 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAK. 

sacrifice, that our troops were withdrawn to their original 
position. 

Gordon captured nine pieces of artillery, eight mortars, 
and between five and six hundred prisoners, amongst them 
one brigadier-general and a number of officers of lower 
grade. It being impracticable to bring off the captured guns, 
owing to the nature of the ground, they were disabled and 
left. 



THE LAST TEAK OF THE WAK. 191 



CHAPTER XII. 

The Battles around Petersbuho. — Themovement of Slieridan's cavalry. — The Five 
Forks. — General Lee's counter-movement. — Repulse of Sheridan. — Ec-enforced by 
Grant. — The Confederates flanked at tlie Five Forks. — The situation in front of 
Petersburg. — Lee's lines broken in three places. — Capture of Fort Mahone by the 
enemy. — General Lee loses his entire line of defence, and the Southside Railroad. 
— The Evacuation of Richmond. — Great surprise in llie Confederate capital. — The 
news in the churches. — Dr. Hoge's address. — Consternation and uproar in the 
streets. — The city on fire. — A reckless military order. — Scenes of -horror. — Mobs of 
plunderers. — The scene at the commissary depot. — Weitzel's entry into Richmond. 
— Sutfering of the people. — Scene on Capitol Square. — Devastations of the fire. — 
The burnt district. — Weitzel's and Shepley's general orders. — Yankee rejoicings 
over the fall of Richmond. — Bell-ringings, hymns, and dancing in the streets of 
New York. — A grand illumination in Washington. — Yankee mottoes. — A memor- 
able speech. 

Grant w^as quick in retaliating for General Lee's attempt on 
his lines, which, as we have seen, drove the enemy at Hare's 
Hill, but did not liold the ground it traversed, or accomplish 
any decisive results. 



THE BATTLES AEOUND PETERSBURG. 

On the 29th of March, Grant began a heavy movement to- 
wards the Southside Railroad. The cavalry command, con- 
sisting of General Crook's division and Sheridan's cavalry, 
moved out on the Jerusalem plankroad, about three and a 
half miles from Hancock Station, where they took the country 
road leading across the Weldon Railroad at Ream's Station, 
and into the Yaughn road one mile from the Dinwiddie Court- 
house, General Crook's division going in advance. They 
reached Dinwiddie Court-house about four o'clock in the 
evening. 

In the mean time the Fifth and Second corps of infantry had 
been moving in a parallel line on the Yaughn road. Gen- 



192 THE LAST TEAR OF THE "WAK. 

eral Grant's headquarters on tlie night of the 29th were on 
the Boydtown Plankroad, in the neighborhood of Gravelly 
Kun. 

The next day heavy rains impeded operations ; but the force 
of the enemy pressed on towards the Five Forks, the extreme 
right of Lee's line on the Southside Railroad. 

General Lee had not been idle in meeting this movement. 
On the 31st of March, the enemy found on his front, prepared 
to contest the prize of the railroad, Pickett's division of in- 
fantry, and General Fitzhugh Lee's and General William H. 
Lee's divisions of cavalry. In the afternoon of the day, the 
Confederates made a determined and gallant charge upon the 
whole cavalry line of the Yankees, forced it back, and drove 
the enemy to a point within two miles of Dinwiddle Court- 
house. 

But the news of Sheridan's repulse had no sooner reached 
General Grant, than the Fifth Corps was moved rapidly to his 
relief. The re-enforcement arrived in time to retrieve the for- 
tunes of the enemy. The next day, April 1st, the combined 
forces of Yankee cavalry and Warren's infantry advanced 
against the Confederates. Overpowered by numbers, the Con- 
federates retreated to the Five Forks, where they were flanked 
by a part of the Fifth Corps, which had moved down the 
White Oak road. It was here that several thousand prisoners 
were taken. 

On the night of Saturday, April 1st, the prospect was a 
most discouraging one for General Lee. Grant had held all 
his lines in front of Petersburg, had manoeuvred troops far to 
his left, had turned Lee's right, and was now evidently pre- 
pared to strike a blow upon the thin lines in front of Pe- 
tersburg. 

By daylight, on Sunday, April 2d, these lines were assaulted 
in three different places by as many different Yankee corps. 
They were pierced in every place. The Sixth Corps went 
through ti]-sr, at a point about opposite the western extremity of 
Petersburg; the Twenty-fourth, a little way further west; and 
the Ninth Coi-ps further east, near to the Jerusalem plankroad, 
capturing Fort Mahone, one of the largest forts in the Peters- 
biirg defences. The Confederates made a desperate struggle 
for Fort Mahone, which was protracted through the day, but 



THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAK. 193 

without snccGss. At dark the position of the contending par- 
ties was the same as during the day. 

The Yankees had congratulated themselves that, by the suc- 
cess of the Sixth Corps, they had cut Lee's army in two — cut- 
ting off the troops that were not in Petersburg. As that place 
was supposed to be the Confederate point of manoeuvre — as it 
was supposed that troops couki not cross the Appomattox ex- 
cept through the city — their capture was taken as certain by 
the enemy, since tliey were hemmed in between Sheridan, the 
Sixth Coi'ps, and the river. But in tliis they were mistaken. 
The Confederates easily forded the river ; and the close of the 
day found Lee's army brought together within the inner line 
of the Petersburfi: defences.* 



* Among tlie Confederate killed was the brave General A. P. Hill, whose 
name had been illustriously connected with the Army of Northern Virginia 
all during the war. He had desired to obtain a nearer view of a portion of the 
Yankee line during the attack of the 2d of April, and leaving his staff behind 
in a place of safety, rode forward, accompanied by a single orderly, and soon 
came upon a squad of Yankees, who had advanced along ravines far beyond 
their lines. He immediately ordered tliem to surrender, which they were on 
the point of doing, under the supposition that a column of troops were at his 
heels. They soon discovered he was nearly unattended, and shot him through 
,the heart. 

General Hill was a native of Culpepper County, Virginia, and descended 
from an ancient family, famous in the political annals of that portion of the 
commonwealth ; although he himself had had nothing to do with ci\al or po- 
litical life. He appeared to be about thirty-six or thirty-seven years of age, 
and was a soldier by profession. He was graduated at VS^est Point, entered the 
army, and served in the Mexican war, and made arms not only his profession, 
but an enthusiastic study, to which he was prompted by the natural tastes and 
disposition of his mind. 

General Hill was, undoubtedly, a commander of remarkable talents and 
qualities. He had risen rapidly in the war by the force of personal merit. At 
the famous field of Manassas he was colonel of the Thirteenth Virginia regi- 
ment, in General Johnston's army, which, it will be recollected, arrived on the 
field in time to secure and complete the great victory of that memorable day. 
At the battle of Williamsburg he had risen to the rank of brigadier-general ; 
and in that fight he exhibited an extraordinary spirit and energy, which were 
recognized by all who observed his behavior on that field, and drew the eyes 
of the public upon him. 

General Hill made his greatest reputation by his conspicuous part in the 
seven days' battles around Eichmond, in the summer of 18G2. Having then 
been made major-general, he occupied, with his division, the extreme left of our 
position in the neighborhood of Meadow Bridge. He was put in command of 
one of the largest divisions of the Army of Richmond, his division being com 

13 



194: THE LAST YKAR OF THE WAK. 

Bat the disasters whicli had already ocurred were, in General 
Lee's opinion, irretrievable. In killed and wounded his loss 
had been small — two thousand would probably cover it in 
the entire series of engagements ; but he had lost an entire line 
of defence around Petersburg, and with it the Southside 
Railroad, so important to Richmond as an avenue of supply. 



THE EVACUATION OF EICmiOND. 

The morning of Sunday, the 2d of April, broke calmly and 
pleasantly over the city of Richmond. The usual crowds were 
collected at the Post-office and tlie War Department, asking 
for news, discussing common-places, and idling away the irk- 
some hours of the Sabbath in Richmond. There was not a 
breath of excitement in the general community. It is a re- 
markable circumstance that, outside of official circles, not half 
a dozen persons in Richmond knew, on that Sunday morning, 
of the three days' fighting that had taken place around Peters- 
burg, and at the distance of only a few hours' ride from the 
capital. For months past, the Government had been reticent 
of all military news whatever ; the newspapers had been 
warned not to publish any military matters, but what should 
be dictated to them from the ^Var Department ; and the public 
was left to imagine pretty much what it pleased concerning the 
progress of the war. Indeed, the idea current in the streets on 
this Sunday morning was rather pleasant and reassuring than 



posed of the brigades of Anderson, Branch, Pender, Gregg, Field, and perhaps 
some others. He rapidly brought his division to perfection in organization. 
It was made his duty to cross at Meadow Bridge, and make the first attack 
upon McClellan's forces. He performed this duty alone, without waiting for 
other movements ; and, unassisted by a portion of his command (for Generals 
Branch and Gregg did not come up until late in the evening), he sustained a 
terrible conflict with the enemy, encouraging his troops by examples of per- 
sonal audacity, which kept him constantly exposed to the enemy's fire. That 
position of the enemy being gained, the division of General Hill followed his 
subsequent movements, being j^laced first in the line of our advance, and 
bearing the brunt of the action to Frazier's farm, where occurred the memor- 
able engagement in which the command of General Hill, composed of his own 
division and one division of General Longstrect's two, fought the whole Yan- 
kee force, and achieved a success which broke the spirit of the enemy, and 
completed the cixcuit of our famous victories around Richmond in 1863. 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE "WAR. 195 

otherwise ; for there was a general impression that Johnston 
was moving to Lee's lines, and that the combined force was to 
take the offensive against the enemy. Beyond this general 
anticipation, the Richmond public had, on the day referred to 
not the sh'ghtest inkling of the situation. The news which a 
few hours later was to overwhelm them, of the reverse of Lee 
and the forced evacuation of Richmond, was to burst upon 
them like a thunderclap from clear skies. 

The first breath of the report was obtained in the churches. 
While President Davis was seated in his pew in St. Paul's 
church, the services were interrupted by a messenger handing 
him a dispatch. It was from General Lee ; it stated that his 
lines had been broken in three places, and that preparations 
should be made to evacuate Richmond by eight o'clock the ensu- 
ing night, in the event that he should be unable to re-establish 
his lines. The President left the church with a measured, but 
nervous step. .It was the constrained calmness of despair. 
ISTo one but himself knew the exact contents of the dispatch ; 
but an uneasy whisper ran through the congregation, and, as 
they were hastily dismissed, the rumor was caught up in the 
streets that Richmond was to be evacuated, and was soon car- 
ried to the ends of the city. 

In another of the churches, the news was more plainly told. 
Dr. Hoge, the beloved pastor of the Presbyterian church, 
than whom there was no brighter Christian or nobler patriot 
within the limits of Richmond, had, at the conclusion of his 
sermon, given out a beautiful hymn to be sung by his congre- 
gation. Before they raised their voices, he told them, with his 
own voice broken with emotion, that he had sad news to com- 
municate ; that our army had " met with a reverse ;" that with- 
out being exactly apprised of the extent and nature of the re- 
verse, he was convinced that it was probable that they might 
never again meet in that house of God ; and then he spoke to 
those who had so long known and loved him a tender farewell, 
in such beautiful and plaintive words that there was not a dry 
eye among all those dismayed faces which hung upon his 
words. 

Men, women, and children rushed from the churches, pass- 
ing from lip to lip news of the impending fall of Richmond. 
And yet it was diflScult to believe it. To look up to the calm, 



196 TUK LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

beautiful sky of the spring day unassailed by one single noise 
of battle, to watch the streets unvexed by artillery or troops, 
stretching away into the qniet hazy atmosphere, and believe 
that the capital of tlie Confederacy, so peaceful, so apparently 
secure, was in a few hours to be the prey of the enemy, and to 
be wrapped in the infernal horrors of a conflagration ! 

It was late in the afternoon when the signs of evacuatidn 
became apparent to the incredulous. AVagons on the streets 
were being hastily loaded at the departments with boxes, trunks, 
etc., and driven to the Danville depot. Those who had de- 
termined to evacuate with the fugitive Government looked on 
with amazement ; then, convinced of the fact, rushed to follow 
the Government's example. Yehicles suddenly rose to a pre- 
mium value that was astounding; and ten, fifteen, and even a 
liundiied dollars in gold or federal currency was offered foi' a 
conveyance. Suddenly, as if by magic, the streets became 
filled with men, walking as though for a wager, and behind 
tliem excited negroes with trunks, bundles, and luggage of 
every description. All over the city it was the same — wagons, 
trunks, bandboxes, and their owners, a mass of hurrying fugi- 
tives, filling the streets. The banks were all open, and deposit- 
ors were as busy as bees removing their specie deposits ; and 
the directors were equally active in getting off their bullion. 
Hundreds of thousands of dollars of paper money was de- 
stroyed, both State and Confederate. Night came, and with 
it came confusion worse confounded. There was no sleep for 
human eyes in Richmond that night. 

The city council had met in the evening, and resolved to 
destroy all the liquor in the city, to avoid the disorder con- 
sequent on the temptation to drink at such a time. About the 
hour of midnight the work commenced, under the direction of 
committees of citizens in all the wards. Hundreds of barrels 
of liquor were rolled into the street and the heads knocked in. 
The gutters ran M-ith a liquor freshet, and the fumes filled and 
impregnated the air. Fine cases of bottled liquors were tossed 
into the street from third story windows, and wrecked into 
a thousand pieces. As the work proo-ressed, some strao-alino; 
soldiers, retreating through the city, managed to get hold of a 
quantity of the liquor. From that moment law and order 
ceased to exist. Many of the stores were pillaged, and the 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 197 

sidewalks were encumbered with broken glass, where the 
tliieves had smashed the windows in their reckless haste to get 
their hands on the plunder within. The air was tilled with 
the wild cries of distress, or the yells of roving pillagers. 

But a more terrible element was to appear upon the scene. 
An order had been issued from General Ewell's headquarters to 
fire the four principal tobacco warehouses of the city — namely, 
the public warehouse, situated at th.e head of the basin, near the 
Petersburg Railroad depot; Shockoe warehouse, situated near 
the centre of the city, side by side with the Gallego flour-mills ; 
Mayo's warehouse, and Dibrell's warehouse, on Gary-street, a 
square below the Libby prison. 

Late in the night, Mayor Mayo had dispatched, by a com- 
mittee of citizens, a remonstrance against this reckless military 
ordei-, which plainly put in jeopardy tlie whole business portion 
of Richmond. It was not heeded. Nothing was left for the 
citizens but to submit to the destruction of their property. 
The warehouses were fired. The rams in the James River 
were blown up. The Richmond, Virginia, and another one, 
were all blown to the four winds of heaven. The Patrick 
Henry, a receiving ship, was scuttled. Such s-hipping, very 
little in amount, as was lying at the Richmond wharves, was 
also fired, save the flag-of-truce steamer Allison. 

The bridges leading out of the city — namely, the Danville 
Railroad bridge, the Petersburg Railroad bridge, Mayo's 
bridge, leading to Manchester and the opposite side of the 
James, were also fired, and were soon wrapped in flames. 

Morning broke upon a scene such as those wdio witnessed it 
can never forget. The roar of an immense conflagration 
sounded in the ears; tongucB of flame leaped from street to 
street; and in this baleful glare were to be seen, as of demons, 
the figures of busy plunderers, moving, pushing, rioting, 
through the black smoke and into the open street, bearing 
away every conceivable sort of plunder. 

The scene at the commissai-y depot, at the head of the dock, 
beggared description. Hundreds of government wagons were 
loaded with bacon, flour, and whiskey, and driven off in hot 
haste to join the retreating army. Thronged about the depot 
were hundreds of men, women, and children, black and white, 
provided with capacious bags, baskets, tubs, buckets, tin pans 



198 THE LAST YEAK OF THE WAK. 

and aprons ; cursing, pushing, and crowding, awaiting the 
throwing open of the doore, and the order for each to lielp 
himself. 

About sunrise the doors were opened to tlie populace, and 
a rusli, that ahnost seemed to carrj the building off its founda- 
tion, was made, and hundreds of thousands of pounds of bacon, 
flour, etc., were soon swept away by a clamorous crowd. 

In the mean time, let us see what was passing on the Yankee 
lines. When General Ord withdrew to the lines investing 
Petersburg, he carried with him exactly one-half of his 
army. On the north side, occupying his entire line, he left 
"Weitzel, with Kautz's division of the Twenty-fourth Corps, 
and Ashborne's and Thomas' divisions of the Twenty-fifth 
Corps. 

While the fighting was in progress around Petersburg, 
Weitzel's entire line was perfectly quiet, not a shot anywhere. 
His command had orders to make as great a show as possible. 
At night he set all his bands to work upon national airs, and 
the night was filled with melodious strains. 

Towards midnight this musical entertainment ceased, and 
a silence, complete and absolute, brooded over the contending 
lines. At this hour, the enemy's camps were startled into life 
again, by explosions heard in Pichmond. 

To Weitzel's brain the full meaning of the event came home 
at once, and he did not need the confirmatory lurid light he 
saw hanging over the Confederate capital to tell him that the 
hour had come. His orders were to push on, whenever 
satisfied of his ability to enter the city. 

Day had no sooner broke than Weitzel dispatched Major A. 
H. Stevens, of the Fourth Massachusetts cavalry, and Major 
E. E, Graves, of his staff, with forty cavalry, to investigate the 
condition of affairs. The troops rode steadily into Richmond. 
On a trot they proceeded to the Capitol, and creeping to its 
summit, planted the stars and stripes. The symbols of the 
United States thus hoisted by the halyards, consisted of two 
guidons from companies E and H of the Fourth Massachusetts 
cavalry, of which Stevens was one of the field-officers. The 
colors of the enemy fluttered in the early morning light over 
the Capitol of the Confederacy. 

As the day advanced, Weitzel's troops poured through the 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAK. 199 

streets of the city. Long lines of negro cavalry swept by the 
Exchange Hotel, brandishing their swords and uttering savage 
shouts. These shouts, the roar of devouring flames, the endless 
processions of plunderers passing from street to street, tugging 
away the prizes they had drawn from the hellish circle of the 
lire, made up an indescribable horror. Here were the garish 
Yankee troops sweeping up towards the Capitol Square, with 
music and wild cheers; everywhere, almost, the pandemonium 
of fire and pillage ; and in the midst of all the wild agony, the 
fuiritive distress of women and children rushino^ towards the 
open square for a breath of pure air, all that was now left them 
in heaven's great hoUowness. And even that was not to be 
obtained there. The air, even in the square of the Capitol, was 
almost choking; and one traversed it blinded by cinders and 
struggling for breath. Beneath the trees, on the sward, were 
piles of furniture, dragged from tlie ruins of burning homes ; 
and on carpets, sti'etched on the slopes of the hill, were family 
groups, making all sorts of uncouth arrangements to protect 
their little ones, and to patch up, with broken tables and 
bureaus, some sort of home in the open air. 

In the afternoon, the fire had burned itself out. It had con- 
sumed the very heart of the city. A surveyor could scarcely 
have designated more exactly the business portion of the city, 
than did the boundaries of the fire. Commencing at the 
Shockoe warehouse, the fire radiated front and rear, and on 
two wings, burning down to, but not destroying, the store No. 
77 Main-street, south side, lialf way between Fourteenth and Fif- 
teenth streets, and back to tlie river, tlirough Cary and all the 
intermediate streets. Westward, on Main, the fire was stayed 
at Kinth-street, sweeping back to the river. On the north side 
of Main the flames were stayed between Thirteenth and Four- 
teenth streets. From this point the flames raged on the north 
side of Main up to Eighth-street, and back to Bank-street. 

Among some of the most prominent buildings destroyed 
were, the Bank of Richmond, Traders' Bank, Bank of the Com- 
monwealth, Bank of Virginia, Farmers' Bank, all the banking 
houses, the American Hotel, the Columbian Hotel, the En- 
quirer building on Twelfth-street, the Dispatch ofiice and job 
rooms, corner of Thirteenth and Main-streets ; all that block 
of buildings known as Belvin's Block ; the Examiner otfice,. 



200 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

engine, and machinery rooms ; the Confederate Post-ofBce De- 
partment building ; the State Conrthonse, a fine old building 
situated on Capitol Square at its Franklin-street entrance ; the 
Mechanics' Institute, vacated by the Confederate War Depart- 
ment, and all the buildings on that square up to Eighth-street 
and back to Main-street ; the Confederate arsenal and labora- 
tory, Seventh-street. 

The streets were crowded with furniture and every descrip- 
tion of wares, dashed down to be trampled in the mud or 
burned up where it lay. All the government storehouses 
were thrown open, and what could not be gotten oif by the 
Government was left to the people. 

Next to the river the destruction of property v.-as fearfully 
complete. The Danville and Petersburg Railroad dej^ots, and 
the buildings and shedding attached, for the distance of half 
a mile from the north side of Main-street to the river, and be- 
tween Eighth and Fifteenth streets, embracing upwards of 
twenty blocks, presented one waste of smoking ruins, black- 
ened walls, and solitary chimneys. 

On the occupation of RichnKjnd, General Weitz'el established 
his headquai'ters in the State Capitol, in the hall lately occu- 
pied by the Virginia House of Delegates, and instituted meas- 
ures to restore order. He immediately issued the following 
order : 

Headquartees Detachment Army op the James, 
Richmond, Va., April 3, I860. 

Major-General Godfrey Weitzel, commanding detachment of the Army of 
the James, announces the occupation of the city of Richmond by the Armies of 
the United States, under command of Lieutenant-General Grant. The people 
of Richmond are assured that we come to restore to them the blessings of peace, 
prosperity, and freedom, under the flag of the Union. 

The citizens of Richmond are requested to remain, for the present, quietly 
•within their houses, and to avoid all public assemblages or meetings in the 
public streets. An efficient provost-guard will immediately re-establish order 
and tranquillity within the city. 

Martial law is, for the present, proclaimed. 

Brigadier-General George F. Shcpley, United States Volunteers, is hereby 
appointed military governor of Richmond. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Fred. L. Manning, provost-marshal-general, Army of 
the James, will act as provost-marshal of Richmond. Commanders of detach- 
ments doing guard-duty in the city will report to him for instructions. 
By command of 

MAJOR-GENERAIi WeITZEL. 

D. D Wheeler, Assistant Adjutant-General. 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAE. 201 

Brigadier-General G. F. Sheplej, having been announced as 
military governor of Kichmond, issued the following order : 

Headquarteus Militaky Governor op Richmond, 
Richmond, Va., April 3, 1865. 

I. The armies of the rebellion having abandoned their effort to enslave the 
people of Virginia, have endeavored to destroy by fire the capital which they 
could not longer occupy by their arms. Lieutenant-Colonel Manning, provost- 
niarshal-geueral of the Army of the James and provost-marshal of Richmond, 
will immediately send a sufficient detachment of the provost-guard to arrest, 
if possible, the progress of the- flames. The fire department of the city of 
Richmond, and all the citizens interested in the preservation of their beautiful 
city, will immediately report to him for duty, and render every possible assist- 
ance in staying the progress of the conflagration. The first duty of the Armies 
of the Union will be to save the city doomed to destruction by the armies of 
the rebellion. 

II. No person will leave the city of Richmond, without a pass from the office 
of the provost-marslial. 

III. Any citizen, soldier, or any person whatever, who shall hereafter plun- 
der, destroy, or remove any public or private i)roperty of any description what- 
ever, will be arrested and summarily punished. 

IV. The soldiers of the command will abstain from any offensive or insult- 
ing words or gestures towards the citizens. 

V. No treasonable or offensive expressions, insulting to the flag, the cause, 
or the Armies of the Union, will hereafter be allowed. 

VI. For an exposition of their rights, duties, and privileges, the citizens of 
Richmond are respectfully referred to the proclamations of the President of the 
United States in relation to the existing rebellion. 

VII. All persons having in their possession, or under their control, any prop- 
erty whatever of the so-called Confederate States, or of any officer thereof, or 
the records or archives of any public officer whatever, will immediately report 
the same to Colonel Manning, provost-marslial. 

In conclusion, the citizens of Richmond are assured that, with the restora- 
tion of the flag of the Union, they may expect the restoration of that peace, 
prosperity, and happiness which they enjoyed under the Union, of which that 
flag is the glorious symbol. 

G. F. Shepley, Brigadier-General U. S. V., 
and Military Governor of Richmond. 

"While the scenes of terror and destruction we have nar- 
rated were taking place in Richmond, the North was cele- 
brating, with those fervors and shows known only to the Yan- 
kee, the fall of the Confederate capital. In J^ew York and in 
Washington were the most swollen exhibitions of the popular 
triumph. 

In the former city there was an unlimited display of flags ; 
bells were rung ; impromptu meetings were gotten up, and 



202 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

wild and enthusiastic congratulations were exchanged on the 
streets. The New York Herald said : " People fairly danced 
in the excess of enthusiasm. To state that they howled would 
sound harsh and flat, but it would nevertheless be the simple 
truth. Huzzaing and cheering were heard, as never they 
were heard before. Singing also formed part of the popular 
mode of letting off the exuberant feelings of the masses. 
Down in Wall-street, a chorus, which Maretzek could never 
hope to rival, almost made the ancient piles of stone and brick 
treujble in sympathy." 

The rage for flags was immense. Half an hour after the 
receipt of the news of the capture of the Confederate capital, 
there was, says a 'New York paper, not a single large flag of a 
national character in the whole city left unpurchased. Every 
housekeeper showed his loyalty and satisfaction, by exhibiting 
the stars and stripes from some portion of his establishment. 
The railway cars and horses were decorated with miniature 
flags. Carts, stages, and wagons, all over the city, displayed 
the same symbol of loyalty ; and every spot, where a piece of 
bunting could properly be fastened, was so decorated. 

At noon, the bells of Trinity and St. Paul churches were 
rung. The chimes of Trinity resounded melodiously through 
the air, above the din of rumbling stages and heavy vehicles 
of every description. The example of these two churches was 
speedily followed by almost every church in the city ; and for 
half an hour or more the ringing was heard from Trinity to 
Harlem — a distance of six miles. 

A large meeting of leading merchants, and other prominent 
citizens, was held at the custom-house, to make arrangements 
for a suitable celebration of the great victory. A number of 
speeches were made on the occasion. At the conclusion of 
one of the speeches, some persons present, with a grand chorus, 
began the hymn, to the tune of " Old Hundred," generally 
known in churches as the Doxology : 

"Praise God, from whom all blessings flow ; 
Praise Him, all creatures here below ; , 

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host ; 
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." 

The whole crowd joined in. The chimes of Trinity came in 



THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 203 

at tlie proper time with good eiFect ; and, as the voices of over 
twenty thousand singers subsided, the echoes of the chimes 
from the towers of Trinity came floating on the breeze, and 
repeating in musical accord — 

" Praise Him, all creatures here below." * 



* From tlie appearance of the New York papers one would suppose that the 
general excitement, produced by the capture of Richmond, had culminated in 
the commercial metropolis of the North. 

The Tribune occupied one-half of its first page with an enormous- spread 
eagle, and the eighth page with a map of Richmond. The editor, while con- 
gratulating his readers on the fall of Richmond, could not avoid saying, that 
" it might have been ours long ago." An Irish drinking song, prepared for the 
occasion, and beginning, " Bad luck to the man who is sober to-night," was 
published on the inside, and proposed a good health to every official who had 
been connected with the military department of the Government, not excepting 
" Shtanton." 

The World's columns were chiefly occupied with a brilliant and lengthy- 
account of the battles, but the displayed heads of the news were jubilant and 
expressive; and the editor declared, that " the taking of Richmond was a greater 
event, and more fully j ustified exiiberant rejoicing, than any previous achieve- 
ment in the history of the war." 

The New York Herald declared, that the taking of Richmond was " one of 
the grandest triumphs that had crowned human efforts for centuries." 

The following specimen of Yankee poetry on the occasion was published in 
a New York paper : 

RICHMOND IS CUES ! 

Richmond is ours ! Richmond is ours ! 

Hark ! to the jubilant chorus ! 
Up, through the lips that no longer repress it, 
Up, from the Heart of the Peoi)le ! God bless it 1 
Swelling with loyal emotion, 
Leapeth our joy, like an ocean ! — 
Richmond is ours ! Richmond is ours ! 
Babylon falls, and her temples and towers 
Crumble to ashes before us ! 

Glory to Grant ! Glory to Grant ! 

Hark ! to the shout of our Nation ! 
Up, from the Irish heart, up from the German — 
Glory to Sheridan ! Glory to Sherman ! 

Up, from all peoples uniting — 

Freedom's high loyalty plighting— 
Glory to all ! Glory to all !— 
Heroes who combat, and martyrs who fall 1 

Lift we our joyous ovation 1 



204: THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

Tlie people of Washington vied with those of New York in 
demonstrations of joy over the fall of Richmond and Peters- 
burg;. In accordance with the recommendation of the Secre- 
tiiry of State, the Execntiv^e Mansion, the Capitol, and all the 
departments and other public buildings, and the City Hall, 
were at night illuminated, and each in a blaze of light was ex- 
hibited in its beautiful pro])ortions. The National flag was a 
ju'ominent adornment, and appropriate mottoes were conspicu- 
ously displayed. Pennsylvania Avenue and the principal 
streets were thronged with pedestrians. Bonfires were kindled 
in various parts of the city, and rockets ignited. "Washington 
was, in short, ablaze with lights. The residences of the heads 
of the departments, and other officers of the Government, were 
also adorned and illuminated. 

The Capitol made a splendid appearance. It was the centre 
of attraction, and from basement to dome was a blaze of light. 
Over the main entrance, fronting on Pennsylvania Avenue, 
was a large transparency, on which was inscribed, " This is 
the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes." 

Over the main entrance to the War Department was the 
motto, " The Union must and shall be preserved," and under- 
neath an eagle, the word, " Richmond." 

Over the main entrance to the Patent Office building was 
an immense gas-jet, displaying the word, " Union." Over the 



Fling out the Flag ! Flash out the Flag ! 

Up from each turret and steeple ! 
Up from the cottage, and over the mansion, 
Fling out the symbol of Freedom's expansion 1 

Victory crowneth endeavor ! 

Liberty seals us forever ! 
Up from each valley, and out from each crag, 
Fling out the Flag ! Flash out the Flag ! 

Borne on the breath of the People ! 

Richmond is ours ! Eichmond is ours ! 

Hark ! how the welkin is riven ! 
Hark ! to the joy that our Nation convulses. 
Timing all hearts to the cannon's loud pulses ; 

Voices of heroes ascending. 

Voices of martyred ones blending : 
Mingling like watchwords on Liberty's towers, 
" Richmond is ours ! Richmond is ours !" 

Freedoin rejoketh in Heaven ! 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 205 

lower entrance of the Treasury building, on Fifteentli-street, 
was a huge transparency representing a ten-dollar Treasury 
note, over which was the motto, " U. S, greenbacks and U. S. 
Grant — Grant gives the greenbacks a metallic ring." 

Over the front entrance of the State Department was dis- 
played the motto, " At home, union is order, and order is 
strength ; abroad, union is strength, and strength is peace." 
Over the Fifteenth-street entrance was the following motto, 
"Peace and good-will to all nations; but no entangling 
alliances, and no foreign intervention." 

Thousands of persons of both sexes attended a public meeting 
at the southern portico of the Patent Office, where the word 
" Union" was largely prominent in flaming gasjets. Speeches 
were delivered by a number of persons, among them Yice- 
President Johnson. He made a long and intensely Union 
speech, in the course of which he said he could live down all 
the slanders which had been uttered against him. He was 
particularl}' severe on " the rebels," at the head of whom he 
placed Jeft'erson Davis, and he asked, what should be done 
with him. The response from many voices was, " Hang him ! 
hang him !" To this he agreed, and applause succeeded his 
remark that Davis ought to be hanged twenty times higher 
than Ham an. 

The following are passages from Yice-President Johnson's 
speech : 

" At the time tliat tlie traitors in the Senate of the United States plotted 
against the Government, and entered into a conspiracy more foul, more ex- 
ecrable, and more odious than that of Catiline against the Eomans, I happened 
to be a member of that body. I was then and there called upon to know what 
I would do with such traitors, and I want to repeat my reply here. I said, if 
we had an Andrew Jackson, he would hang them as high as Haman. Humble 
as I am, when you ask me what I would do, mj- reply is, I would arrest them ; 
T would try them ; I would convict them ; and I would hang tliem. I say this : 
' The halter to intelligent, influential traitors.' But to the honest boy, to the 
deluded man, who has been deceived into the rebel ranks, I would extend 
leniency ; I would say, return to your allegiance, renew your support to the 

Government, and become a good citizen ; but the leaders I would hang 

It is not my intention to make any imprudent remarks or allusions, but the 
hour will come when those nations that exhibited towards ns such insolence 
and improper interference in the midst of our adversity, and, as they supposed, 
of our weakness, will learn that this is a Government of the people, possessing 
power enough to make itself felt and respected." 



206 THE LAST YEAK OF THE WAR. 

The passages of this speech, quoted above, as we must pre- 
sume correctly, from the cohimns of a New York paper, ob- 
tained a most important significance in view of the tragical 
death of Mr. Lincoln, on the 14th day of April, and the succes- 
sion of Mr, Johnson to the ofiice of President of the United 
States, and that of dictator of the programme of subjugation 
consequent upon the war. But these events lie beyond the 
period and purpose of our narrative of the war, and we make 
only this brief and passing reference to them. 



THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAE. 



207 



CHAPTER XIII. 

"What the Confederates anticipated on the fall of Kichmond. — Two opinions.— Pro- 
phetic words of the Richmond Examiner. — Disintegration of Lee's army. — The 
line of his retreat. — Grant's pursuit.— Sheridan captures prisoners, guns, and wag- 
ons. — Sheridan's dispatch. — Change in the movements of both armies. — The situa- 
tion at Appomattox Court-house. — How Lee was surrounded. — Surrender of the 
Army of Northern Virginia. — A frightful demoralization of the army.^More than 
two-thirds of the men deserted. — Pickett's di-vision.' — Reasons to suppose that Gen- 
eral Lee had predetermined a surrender on moving from Richmond and Peters- 
burg. — Straggling of his soldiers. — Official correspondence concerning the surren- 
der. — Interview between General Lee and General Grant at McLean's house. — How 
General Lee looked. — Grant's generous conduct. — Scenes between the lines of the 
two armies.- -An informal conference of officers. — How tlie news of surrender was 
received in the Yankee army.— How received at Washington. — Secretary Stanton's 
dispatch. — President Lincoln's speech. — " Dixie" in Washington. — General Lee's 
farewell address to his army. — His return to Richmond.— Effect of Lee's surrender. 
-General Johnston's department.— Movements in the Southwest. — Fall of Mo- 
bile. — Wilson's cavalry expedition through Alabama and Georgia. — Surrekdeb 
OF Johnston's akmt. — Sherman's " basis of negotiations" repudiated at Wash- 
ington. — The policy of the Northern Government unmasked. — Sherman's reply. — 
Surrender of Taylor's army. — Surrender of Kirby's Smith's army. — "War 
meetings" in Texas. — \\ ant of public resolution. — The last act of the war. — A sud- 
den peace, and what it implied. 

FoK a long time there had been two opinions in the Confed- 
eracy, as to the eflfect the fall of Richmond would have upon 
the war. Many intelligent persons considered that Richmond 
was not a vital point in the Confederaxjy ; and now that it had 
been evacuated, there were not a few persons who still indulged 
the hope of the supremacy of the Southern arms and the dream 
of independence. There were found sanguine persons in Rich- 
mond the day after the evacuation, who pleased themselves 
with the imagination that that event was only about to date a 
new era in the Confederate defence ; that the Government 
would re-establish itself, perhaps, in Georgia, and with advan- 
tages and under auspices it had never had before ; that it might 
reopen Georgia and the Carolinas, and thus place itself nearer 
its resources of subsistence, and have the control of a territory 
practically much larger than that in the Richmond jurisdiction. 
But these hopeful and ingenious persons wholly failed to take 



208 THE LAST TKAR OF THE WAR. 

into account the moral effect of the loss of the Confederate 
capital, and to calculate the easy transition in such circum- 
stances from despondency to despair. 

Several weeks before the catastrophe the Richmond Ex- 
aminer had used the following almost prophetic language: 
"•The evacuation of Richmond would be the loss of all respect 
and authority towards the Confederate Government, the disin- 
tegration of the army, and the abandonment of the scheme of 
an independent Southern Confederation. Each contestant in 
the war has made Richmond the central object of all its plans 
and all its exertions. It has become the symbol of the Con- 
federacy. Its loss would be material ruin to the cause, and, in 
a moral point of view, absolutely destructive, crushing the 
heart and extinguishing the last hope of the country. Our 
armies would lose the incentive inspired by a great and worthy 
object of defence. Our military policy would be totally at 
sea; we should be without a hope or an object; without civil 
or military organization ; without a treasury or a commissariat ; 
without the means of keeping alive a wholesome and active 
public sentiment ; without any of the appliances for supj)orting 
a cause depending upon a popular faith and enthusiasm ; with- 
out the emblems or the semblance of nationality." 

These sad but intelligent anticipations were now to be 
vividly realized. The disintegration of Lee's army com- 
menced with its withdrawal from the Richmond and Peters- 
burg lines. 

In his last telegram to Richmond from Petersburg, Sunday 
evening, the 2d of April, General Lee stated that some time 
during the night he would fall back behind the Appomattox — 
that is, to the north bank of that stream, to prevent being 
flanked. The Appomattox rises in Appomattox County, eighty 
miles west of Petei'sburg, flows northeast to Matoax Station, 
on the Danville Railroad, twenty-seven miles from Richmond, 
and thence southeast to City Point. When Lee sent his tele- 
gram above alluded to, his troops were holding a semicircular 
line south of the river, and including Petersburg ; his left rest- 
ing on the Appomattox, his right on the Southside Railroad, 
some fifteen miles west of the town. The Yankee armies were 
pressing his whole line, Sheridan being on his extreme right. 
During Sunday night he got across the Appomattox, and com 



THE LAST YEAK OF THE WAR. 209 

menced to push up the north bank of that streara. The Yan- 
kee forces were hurried up the Southside Raib'oad to BurkcB- 
ville Junction to cut him off. Sheridan made direct pui'suit, 
with the double object of harassing the rear of the retreating- 
columns, and cutting off such troops as were retreating from 
Richmond and attempting to join Lee. 

Grant was possessed of the interior or shorter lines .to 
Burkesville. He might thus hope to cut off Lee's retreat from 
Danville or from Lynchburg. Indeed, there appeared but one 
way for Lee to escape — namely, a tremendous run up the 
bank of the Appomattox, to reach the Southside Railroad at 
Farmville,_ destroj^ing the bridges in his rear. Even this 
chance Sheridan was sanguine of cutting off'. 

On the 5th of April, Sheridan made an important capture of 
prisoners, guns, and wagons. It appears that Lee's army was 
moving as rapidly west as his limited transportation and the 
demoralized condition of his troops would permit, on the road 
between Amelia Court-house and Jetersville. The Yankee 
cavalry having gained possession of the Danville Railroad 
some time previous, were not long in discovering liis where- 
abouts. Sherida>n immediately sent Davies' brigade around 
on his left flank ; and although they were repulsed and driven 
back upon the infantry, it was not until they had taken several 
hundred prisoners, five guns, and a number of wagons. 

On the evening of the 5th of April, a portion of the advance 
of Grant's army was at Burkesville Station (the junction of the 
Southside and Danville railroads). Sheridan, with the main 
body of his cavalry, at three p. m. of that day, was at Jeters- 
ville, on the Danville road, a station forty-three miles from 
Richmond. Lee, at the same date, with the remnants of his 
army, was at Amelia Court-house, a point thirty-six miles from 
Richmond, and seven miles north of Sheridan's advance. 

In this situation Sheridan telegraphed to Grant : " I feel 
confident of capturing the entire Army of Northern Virginia, 
if we exert'ourselves. I see no escape for Lee." 

On the 6th, at daylight. General Meade, with the Second, 
Fifth, and Sixth corps, was at Burkesville Station, Lee being- 
near Amelia Court-house ; the Yankee forces were south and 
west of him. Sheridan's advance was at Jetersville ; and, as it 
moved towards Amelia Court-house, its left stretched well out 

U 



210 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

towards Painesville, a point about ten miles northwest of 
Amelia Court-house, and directly on the line of Lee's retreat 
towards the Appomattox. 

It seemed as if Sheridan's position at Jetersville, with his 
left across the line of Lee's westward march to the Appomat- 
tox, M'ould compel Lee to stand still. Llence the enemy's 
movement towards the Appomattox was given up, and the 
men were faced about and moved northeast, towards Amelia 
Court-house, expecting to fight Lee there. Lee, however, was 
already on his way from the court-house towards the river ; 
and when this became known, the direction of the enemy's 
movement was changed once more. 

On the evening of the 6th, two divisions of the Sixth Army 
Corps came up with Lee's retreating columns at the intersec- 
tion of the Burkesville Station road with the road upon which 
they were moving. Some desultory fighting ensued. Sheri- 
dan telegraphed : " If the thing is pressed, I think Lee will sur- 
render." He claimed already to have captured Generals 
Ewell, Kershaw, Button, Corse, De Bare, and Custis Lee, sev- 
eral thousand prisoners, fourteen pieces of artillery, with cais- 
sons, and a large number of wagons. 

The position into which the remnant of Lee's army had now 
been forced was one from which it was impossible to extricate 
it witliout a battle, which it was no longer capable of fighting. 
His army lay massed a short distance west of Appomattox 
Court-house; his last avenue of escape towards Danville, on 
the southwest, was gone ; he was completely hemmed in. 
Meade was in his rear on the east, and on his right flank north 
of Appomattox Court-house; Sheridan had headed him off 
completely, by getting between him and Lynchburg ; General 
Ord was on the south of the court-house, near the railroad ; 
the Yankee troops were in the most enthusiastic spirits, and 
what remained of the Army of Northern Virginia was plainly 
doomed. 



SURRENDER OF THE ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA. 

The line of Lee's retreat afforded ample evidence of the ex- 
f cessive, frightful demoralization of his army. It was strewn 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 211 

with arms and accoutrements, with abandoned caissons, with 
knapsacks, blankets, and clothing — in short, with whatever could 
be most readily cast away in flight. The whole intervening 
country was tracked by deserters returning in squads to their 
homes ; and who, anticipating a surrender of the army, were 
anxious to avoid what they supposed would be the conditions 
of such an event. The extent of this desertion was without 
precedent. Lee's whole army had almost ran through his 
lingers. He had had on the lines he had abandoned between 
twenty-seven and twenty-eight thousand men ; at Appomattox 
Court-house he had scarcely ten thousand men for a battle, 
and actually surrendered less than eight thousand.* On the 
Petersburg lines Pickett's division had been roughly estimated 
at eight thousand men. It surrendered only forty-five muskets. 
Such were the moral effects of the fall of Richmond, and such 
the necessities which brought with it the terrible consequence 
of the surrender of what had been by far the most formidable 
army the Qonfederates had ever had in the field. 

There can be no doubt in history that General Lee, in taking 
his army away from Richmond and Petersburg, had decided, 
in his own mind, upon the hopelessness of the war, and had 
predetermined its surrender. The most striking proof of this 
is, that on his retreat there was no order published against 
straggling — a thing unprecedented in all deliberate and strategic 
retreats — and nothing whatever done to maintain discipline. 
The men were not animated by the style of general orders 
usual on such occasions. They straggled and deserted almost 
at will. An idea ran through thfe Virginia troops that with 
the abandonment of Richmond the war was hopeless, and that 
they would be justified in refusing to fight outside the limits 
of their State. Nothing was done to check the notorious 



* The looseness of historical statement in the North with reference to the 
war is very remarkable. We must expect exaggeration and brag in Yankee 
newspapers ; but in the magazine, pamphlet, report, and those deliberate foi-ms 
of literature, which stand between tlie daily paper and the bound volume, some 
effort at accuracy of statement is to be expected. Yet we see in the col umns 
of a popular Northern magazine that Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court- 
house fifty tliousaiid men ! And this absurd statement is quite as likely to go 
into Yankee history as any other absurd piece of statistics about the extent 
and glory of Yankee conquests. 



212 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAE. 

circulation of this notion in the army. The Virginia troops 
scattered off to their homes at ahnost every mile of the ronte. 
We have seen that Pickett was left with only a handful oi 
men. Some of the brigade commanders had not hesitated to 
advise their men that the war was virtually over, and that they 
had better go home and " make crops." 

- But there are other proofs, besides the omission of the 
measures against straggling usual on retreats, that General 
Lee had prevised a surrender of his army. He carried off from 
Petersburg and Kichmond all the transportation of his army, 
sufficient, perhaps, for one hundred thousand men, certainly 
largely in excess of the actual needs of the retreat. The ex- 
cessive number of Virginia troops who were permitted to drop 
out of the ranks and return to their homes, shows very well 
that there was no firm purpose to carry the war out of the 
limits of that State. Prisoners taken on the retreat invariably 
reported that the army was soon to be halted for a surrender ; 
and General Custis Lee, when captured by the enemy, is 
alleged to have made the same revelation of his father's 
designs. 

While the pursuit of Lee's army by Grant's overwhelming 
forces was still in progress, the following correspondence ensued 
between the two commanders : 



AvRiL 7, 1865. 
Geneeal R. E. Lee, Commanding C. /S. A. : 

General — The result of the last week must convince you 
of the hopelessness of further resistance on the part of the Army 
of Northern Virginia in this struggle. I feel that it is so, and 
regard it as my duty to shift from myself the responsibility of 
any further effusion of blood, by asking of you the surrender 
of that portion of the Confederate Southern army, known as 
the Army of Northern Virginia. 
Very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

F. S. Grant, 
Lieut.-Gen. commandinsr Armies of the United States. 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAE. i 213 

n. 

April 7, 1865. 

General — I have received your note of tins day. Though 

not entirely of the opinion you express of the hopelessness of 

further resistance on the part of the Army of Northern Virginia, 

I reciprocate your desire to avoid useless effusion of blood, and 

therefore, before considering your proposition, ask the terms 

you will offer on condition of its surrender. 

R. E. Lee, General. 

To LlEUTENANT-GENERAIi U. S. GrAIH', 

Commanding Armies of the United States, 

in. 

April 8, 1865. 

To General R. E. Lee, Commanding C. S. A. : 

General — Your note of last evening, in reply to mine of 
the same date, asking the conditions on which 1 will accept 
the surrender of the Army of Northern Yirginia is just re- 
ceived. 

In reply. I would say, that peace being my first desire, there 
is but one condition that I insist upon, viz. : 

That the men surrendered shall be disqualified for taking up 
arms again against the Government of the United States until 
properly exchanged. 

I will meet you, or designate officers to meet any officers 
you may name for the same purpose, at any point agreeable to 
you, for the purpose of arranging definitely the terms upon 
which the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia will be 
received. 

Very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

U. S. Grant, Lieutenant-General, 
Commanding Armies of the United States. 



lY. 

April 8, 1865. 

General — I received, at a late hour, your note of to-day in 
answer to mine of yesterday. 

I did not intend to propose the surrender of the Army of 
Northern Virginia, but to ask the terms of your proposition. 



214 THE LAST YEAE OF THE WAR. 

To be frank, I do not think the emergency has arisen to call 
for the surrender. 

But as the restoration of peace should be the sole object of 
all, I desire to know whether your proposals would tend to 
that end. 

I cannot, therefore, meet you with a view to surrender the 
Army of Northern Virginia ; but so far as your proposition 
may affect the Confederate States forces under my command 
and tend to the restoration of peace, I should be pleased to 
meet you at ten a. m. to-morrow, on the old stage-road to 
Richmond, between the picket-lines of the two armies. 
Very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

E. E. Lee, General C. S. A. 
To Lieutenant-General Grant, 

Commanding Armies of tlie United States. 



V. 



April 9, 1865. 



General E.. E. Lee, Commanding C. S. A. : 

General — Your note of yesterday is received. As I have 
no authority to treat on the sul)ject of peace, the meeting pro- 
posed for ten a. m. to-day cduld lead to no good. I will state, 
however, General, that I am equally anxious for peace with 
yourself; and the whole North entertain the same feeling. 
The terms upon which peace can be had are well understood. 
By the South laying down their arms they will hasten that 
most desirable event, save thousands of human lives, and 
hundreds of millions of property not yet destroyed. 

Sincerely hoping that all our difficulties may be settled 
without the loss of anotlier life, I subscribe myself, 
Very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

U. S. Grant, 
Lieutenant-General United States Army. 



VT. 

April 9, 1865. 

General — I received your note of this morning on the 
picket-line, whither I had come to meet you and ascertain 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 215 

definitely what terms were embraced in your proposition of 
yesterday with reference to the surrender of this army. 

I now request an interview in accordance with the ofi'er 
contained in your letter of yesterday for that purpose. 
Very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

R. E. Lek, General. 
To Lieutenant-Genekal Grant, 

Commanding Armies of the United States. 

VII. 

Aprel 9, 1865. 

General R. E. Lee, Commanding C. S. A. : 

Your note of this date is but this moment, 11.50 a. m., re- 
ceived. 

In consequence of my having passed from the Richmond and 
Lynchburg road to tHe Farmville and Lyncliburg road, I am, 
at this writing, about four miles west of "Walter's Church, and 
will push forward to the front for the purpose of meeting you. 

Notice sent to me on this road where you wish the interview 
to take place, will meet me. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

U. S. Grant, Lieutenant-General. 

VIII. 

Appomattox Court-house, April 9, 1865. 
General R. E. Lee, Commanding C. S. A.: 

In accordance with the substance of my letter to you of the 
8th inst., I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of 
Northern Virginia on the following terms, to wit : 

Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate, 
one copy to be given to an officer designated by me, the other 
to be retained by such ofiiccrs as you may designate. 

The officers to give their individual parole not to take arms 
against the Government of the United States until properly 
exchanged ; and each company or regimental commander to 
sign a like parole for the men of their commands. 

The arms, artilfery, and public property to be parked and 
stacked, and turned over to the officers appointed by me to 
receive them. 



216 THE LAST YKAR OF THE WAR. 

This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers, nor their 
private horses or baggage. 

Tliis done, each officer and man wall be allowed to return to 
their homes, not to be disturbed by United States authority so 
long as they observe their parole and the laws in force where 
they may reside. 

Yery respectfully, 

U. S. Grant, Lieutenant-General. 



rx. 

Headqtjaiiters Ahmy of Northern Virgestia, April D, 1865. 
Libdt.-Gkneral U. S. Grant, Commanding TJ. S. A. : 

General — I have received your letter of this date, contain- 
ing the terms of surrender of the Army of JSTorthern Virginia, 
as proposed by you. As they are substantially the same as 
those expressed in your letter of the 8th inst., they are accepted. 
I will proceed to designate the proper officers to carry the 
stipulations into effect. 

Very respectfull}', your obedient servant, 

R. E. Lee, General. 

Thus in two days time, and by means of nine short letters, 
was accomplished the decisive event of the war, and what in 
fact was to prove its complete conclusion. 

General Lee and General Grant had met at the house of Mr. 
"Wilmer McLean, The interview was very simple, and unat- 
tended by any ceremony. General Lee was attended only by 
Colonel Marshal, one of his aids, while with Grant there were 
several of his staff-officers ; and a number of Yankee generals 
entered the room during the interview. The two commanders 
greeted each other with courtesy, and without idle words or 
dramatic flourishes proceeded at once and simply to business. 

General Lee immediately alluded to the conditions of the 
surrender, characterized them as lenient, and said he would 
leave the details to General Grant's own discretion. General 
Grant stated the terms of the parole ; that the arms should be 
stacked, the artillery parked, and the supplies and munitions 
turned over to him, the officers retaining their side-arms, 



THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 217 

horses, and personal effects. General Lee promptly assented 
to the conditions, and the agreement of surrender was engrossed 
and signed by General Lee at half-past tliree o'clock in the 
afternoon. 

A Yankee correspondent thiis described the appearance of 
General Lee in this memorable interview : " General Lee 
looked very much jaded and worn, but, nevertheless, presented 
the same magnificent physique for which he has always been 
noted. He was neatly dressed in gray cloth, without em- 
broidery or any insignia of rank, except three stars worn on 
the turned portion of his coat-collar. His cheeks were very 
much bronzed by exposure, but still shone ruddy underneatli 
it all. He is growing quite bald, and wears one of the side 
locks of his hair thrown across the upper portion of his fore- 
head, which is as white and fair as a woman's. He stands 
fully six feet one- inch in height, and weighs something over 
two hundred pounds, without being burdened with a pound of 
superfluous flesh. During the whole interview he was retired 
and dignified to a degree bordering on taciturnity, but was 
free from all exhibition of temper or mortification. His de- 
meanor was that of a thoroughly possessed gentleman who 
had a very disagreeable duty to perform, but was determined 
to get through it as well and as soon as he could." 

It is to be fciirly and cheerfully admitted that General 
Grant's conduct, with respect to all the circumstances of the 
surrender, exhibited some extraordinary traits of magnanimityl 
He had not dramatized the aftair. He had conducted it 
with as much simplicity as possible, avoided " sensation," and 
spared every thing that might wound the feelings or imply 
the humiliation of a vanquished foe. Such conduct was 
noble. Before the surrender, General Grant had expressed to 
his own officers his intention not to require the same for- 
malities as are required in a surrender between the forces of 
two foreign nations or belligerent powers, and to exact no 
conditions for the mere purpose of humiliation. 

Wliile the interview with reference to the surrender was 
taking place between the commanders, a strange scene was 
transpiring between the lines of the two armies, and occupied 
the period of the armistice. An informal conference and 
mingling of ofiicers of both armies gave to the streets of the 



218 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

village of Appomattox Court-house a strange appearance. On 
the Yankee side were Generals Ord, Sheridan, Crook, Gib- 
bon, Griffin, Merritt, Ayres, Bartlett, Chamberhiin, Forsyth, 
and Michie. On the Confederate side were Generals Long- 
street, Gordon, Ileth, Wilcox, and otliers. The conference 
lasted some hour and a half. None but general officers were 
allowed to pass through the skirmish line. There were mutual 
introductions and shaking of hands ; and soon was passed about 
some whiskey, and mutual healths were drank. Gi-adually the 
area of the conference widened. The parties filled the streets, 
and before this singular conference closed, some were seated on 
the steps, and others, for lack of more comfortable accommo- 
dations, chatted cosily, seated on a contiguous fence. 

Between the skirmish lines of the two armies tliere was a 
great suspense, for it was felt that great interests were at stake 
between them. Skirmish line confronted skirmish line, lines 
of battle confronted lines of battle, cannon confronted cannon. 
Eager hopes hung on the interview between the opposing 
great commanders of the two armies. Peace miglit follow 
this interview. It might end in resumption of hostilities, in 
fiercest battle, in terrible carnage. The two arnaies were plainly 
visible to one another. The Confederates skirted a strip of woods 
in rear of the town. Through the vistas of the streets might 
be seen their wagon-trains. The minutes passed but slowly. 
The approach of every horseman attracted an eager look. Two 
o'clock had been appointed by Grant for the resumption of 
hostilities. It arrived, and the Yankee skirmish line com- 
menced to advance. The Confederate pickets were in plain 
sight, and stationary. A moment more, and the crack of the 
rifle would indicate the resumption of carnage. But a clatter 
of hoofs is heard, and a flag of truce appears upon the scene, 
with an order from General Grant that hostilities should cease 
until further orders. 

After the interview at McLean's house. General Lee returned 
to his own camp, about half a mile distant, where his leading 
officers were assembled awaiting his return. He announced the 
result, and the terms. They then approached him in order of 
rank, shook hands, expressing satisfaction at his course and their 
regret at parting, all shedding tears on the occasion. The fact 
of surrender and the terms were then announced to the troops, 



THE LAST YEAK OF THE WAK. 219 

and when General Lee appeared among them he was loudly- 
cheered. 

At four o'clock it was announced in Grant's army that the 
surrender had been consummated, and the articles signed. 
And now the enthusiasm which liad been restrained by uncer- 
tainty broke loose. The various brigade commanders an- 
nounced the joyful news to their commands, and clieers of the 
wildest description followed. The men threw their hats high 
in the air, leaped, ran, jumped, threw themselves into each 
other's arms, and seemed mad with joy. 

But this scene of joy was but slight in comparison with 
what was taking place in distant parts of the Korth, where the 
news of the surrender had been carried by the telegraph. Sec- 
retary Stanton, in Washington, immediately telegraphed an 
order to the headquarters of every army and department, and 
to every fort and arsenal in the United States, to fire a salute 
of two hundred guns in celebration of the event. To Grant he 
dispatched : " Thanks be to Almighty God for the great vic- 
tory with which He has this day crowned you and the gallant 
armies under your command. The thanks of this department, 
and of the Government, and of the people of the United States 
— their reverence and honor have been deserved — will be ren- 
dered to you and the brave and gallant officers and soldiers of 
your army for all time." 

The clerks of the departments, in Washington, went in pro- 
cession to the President's house, and entertained him with the 
" Star Spangled Banner" and " Old Hundred." A crowd of 
several thousands were soon assembled in front of the executive 
mansion. They shouted for Mr. Lincoln. The President tes- 
tified his participation in the joy by calling for the once popular 
secession song of " Dixie." He said : " I have always thought 
that ' Dixie' was one of the best songs I ever heard. Our ad- 
versaries over the way, I knoM^, have attempted to appropriate 
it ; but I insist that on yesterday we fairly captured it. I re- 
ferred the question to the attorney-general, and he gave it as his 
legal opinion that it is now our property. (Laughter and loud 
applanse.) I now ask the band to give us a good turn upon it." 

The day after the surrender General Lee bid farewell to his 
army in the following simple address, so characteristic of his 
plain and manly style of writing : 



220 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAK. 



GENEKAL ORDER NO. 9. 

Headquarters Army Northern VmaiNiA, 
April 10, 1865. 

After four years of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed courage and for- 
titude, the Army of Northern Virginia lias been compelled to yield to orer- 
wlielming numbers and resources. 

I need not teU the survivors of so many hard-fought battles, who have re- 
mained steadfast to the last, that I have consented to this result from no dis- 
trust of them ; but feeling that valor and devotion could accomplish nothing 
that could compensate for the loss that would have attended the continuation 
of the contest, I have determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose 
past services have endeared them to their countrymen. 

By the terms of agreement, officers and men can return to their homes and 
remain there until exchanged. 

You will take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from the consciousness 
of duty faithfully performed ; and I earnestly pray that a merciful God will 
extend to you his blessing and protection. 

With an unceasing admiration of your constancy and devotion to your coun- 
try, and a grateful remembrance of your kind and generous consideration of 
myself, I bid you an affectionate farewell. 

R. E. Lee, General. 

A few days after the surrender, General Lee, attended bj 
five members of his staff, rode into Richmond over the pontoon 
bridge at the foot of Seventeenth-street, and thence up Main- 
street to his residence on Franklin-street between Seventh and 
Eighth streets. 

Passing rapidly through the city he was recognized by but 
few citizens, who raised their hats, a compliment which was 
in every case returned ; but on nearing his residence, the fact 
of his presence having spread quickly, a great crowd rushed to 
see him, and set up aloud cheering, to which he. replied by 
simply raising his hat. As he descended from his horse, a 
large number of persons pressed forward and shook hands with 
him. In a few moments the General made his way into his 
house, the crowd dispersed, and thus quietly passed from the 
theatre of action and public observation the great and famous 
commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. 

The surrender of General Lee drew after it important and 
rapid consequences, and, in effect, terminated the war. 

It left Johnston with no alternative but surrender. On the 
26th of April, by the official returns of the Army of Tennessee, 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 221 

the number of infantry and artillery, present and absent, was 
seventy thousand five hundred and ten ; the total present, 
eighteen thousand five hundred and seventy-eight; the ef- 
fective fighting force, fourteen thousand one hundred and 
seventy-nine. The eff'ective total of the cavalry was only a 
a little over five thousand. These statistics afford a startling 
exhibition of the demoralization of the Confederates, and of 
the amount of that offence in our armies mildly called " ab- 
senteeism ;" but for which, in military language, there could 
be no name but desertion. 

The limits of Johnston's command included North and South 
Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. In the distant districts of his 
department the situation was even more deplorable and des- 
perate than in the vicinity of Raleigh. In South Carolina the 
Confederates had only a division of cavaliy, less than one 
thousand, and in Florida they were as weak. 

In General Dick Taylor's department there had been disas- 
trous events. Mobile had fallen, and there were no means of 
opposing the formidable Yankee army under General Canby. 



MOVEMENTS IN THE SOUTHWEST. — FALL OF MOBILE, ETC. 

The operations against this city had been renewed late in 
March, when two corps of Canby's army invested the Spanish 
Fort, one of the principal defences on the east side of the bay. 
The design of this renewal of operations against Mobile was to 
give the crowning stroke to the system of Confederate defence 
in the Southwest. After Hood's defeat before Nashville, Gen- 
eral Thomas indicated to the Washington authorities that he 
would not, on account of the state of the roads and for other 
reasons, be able to enter immediately upon another campaign. 
But he offered to co-operate with General Canby by sending 
to the latter one-half of his infantry force, and almost all his 
cavalry, the former under the command of General A. J. 
Smith, the latter under General Wilson. 

In addition to these movements, another column of Yankee 
troops under Steele had left Pensacola, Florida, on the 20th of 
March, arrived in front of Mobile, and opened communication 
with General Canby's force. On his march General Steele had 



222 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 

considerable skirmishing, but met with no serious opposition. 
His command arrived on the 22d of April, having cut the Mo- 
bile and Montgomery Railroad near Pollard. 

On the 8th of April, an extraordinary force was brought to 
bear upon Spanish Fort. Twenty-two Parrott guns were got 
within half a mile of the work, while other powerful batteries 
were still nearer. Two gunboats joined in the tremendous 
cannonade. The result was, that the fort surrendered a little 
after midnight. Fort Alexandria followed, and the guns of 
these two were turned against Forts Tracy and Huger, in the 
harbor, at the mouth of the Blakely and Appalaehee rivers. 
But these had already been abandoned. The monitors then 
went busily to work removing torpedoes, and ran up to within 
shelling distance of the city. On the 12th of April the city 
of Mobile was occupied by the Yankee forces. General Maury, 
the Confederate commander, having evacuated the city with 
the bulk of his army. 

In the mean time "Wilson's movements were completing the 
plan of subjugation in the Southwest. His cavalry force had 
moved almost unresisted through the Southwest, ca])tured 
Selma, in Alabama, were already in the vicinity of Macon, 
Georgia, and might easily calculate upon the capture of every 
place of importance west of Augusta. 

Selma was occupied by the Yankee forces on the 2d of 
April. The first resistance met by the enemy's forces was at 
Monticello, where, after a short engagement, they continued to 
advance. On the 1st of April, Forrest, Lyon, and Chalmers 
liaving formed a junction, the first named took command, and 
the Confederates again made a stand, and were driven back 
wdtli loss. They then retreated to Selma, where an obstinate 
defence was prepared for. On the next day, the 2d of April, 
Wilson moved to the attack of the place, and after about an 
hour of severe fighting, the fortifications were carried by as- 
sault, and his troops entered the town, capturing over two 
thousand prisoners, one hundred cannon, large numbers of 
horses and mules, and immense quantities of supplies, ammu- 
nition, etc. Besides these, there fell into the enemy's posses- 
sion millions of dollars worth of cotton, a large arsenal, naval 
iron-works and other manufactories, all of which were de- 
stroyed. 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 223 

Montgomery, the first Confederate capital, was peaceably 
surrendered on the 12th. Cohimbus, Georgia, was captured 
on the 16th. Macon was approached on the 21st. Here Wil- 
son was met by a flag of truce from Howell Cobb, announcing 
an armistice between Sherman and Johnston. 

The survey of the situation south of Virginia leads to the 
conclusion that to carry on the war east of the Mississippi the 
Confederacy had to depend on Johnston's army alone. The 
enemy could have brought against it twelve or fifteen times its 
number in the armies of Generals Grant, Sherman, and Can- 
by. With such odds against us, without the means of procur- 
ing ammunition or repairing arms, without money or credit to 
provide food, it was thought by Johnston impossible to con- 
tinue the war with any reasonable hope of success. 



SURRENDER OF JOHNSTON S ARMY. 

This conclusion the Confederate commander announced to 
the governors of the States within his department by telegraph 
as follows : 

" The disaster in Virginia, the capture by the enemy of all our workshops 
for the preparation of ammunition and repairing of arms, the impossibility of 
recruiting our little army, opposed to more than ten times its ni;mber, or sup- 
plying it except by robbing ouj own citizens, destroyed all hope of suc-cessful 
war. I have, therefore, made a military convention with Major-General Sher- 
man to terminate hostilities in North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. 
I made this convention to spare the blood of this gallant little army, to pre- 
vent further suffering of our people by the devastation and ruin inevitable from 
the marches of invading armies, and to avoid the crime of waging a hopeless 
war." 

Johnston had at first made an attempt to obtain terms to 
give security to citizens as well as to his own soldiers. The 
first result of his negotiations with Sherman was a basis of 
agreement, which that Yankee commander declared in a cir- 
cular address was to secure instant peace in all parts of the 
country, and would involve the surrender of every battalion 
of Confederates within the limits of the United States. The 
following is a copy of the important paper signed by the com- 
manders of the two armies : 



224: THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

MEMOEANDtJM, OR BASIS OF AGREEMENT, made this eigliteentli day of April, 
A. D., 1865, near Durham Station, in the State of North Carolina, by and be- 
tween General Joseph E. Johnston, commanding Confederate Army, and 
Major-General W. T. Shennan, commanding Army of the United States, in 
North Carolina, both being present : 

1. The contending armies now in the field to maintain the status quo, until 
notice is given by the commanding general of any one to its opponent, and 
reasonable time, say forty-eight hours, allowed. 

2. The Confederate armies now in existence to be disbanded, and conducted 
to their several state capitals, therein to deposit their arms and public property 
in the state arsenal, and each officer and man to execute and file an agreement 
to cease from acts of war, and to abide the action of both State and Federal 
authorities. The number of arms and munitions of war to be reported to the 
chief of ordnance at Washington City, subject to the future action of the Con- 
gress of the United States, and in the mean time to be used solely to maintain 
peace and order within the borders of the States respectively. 

3. The recognition by the Executive of the United States of the several State 
governments, on their officers and legislatures taking the oath prescribed by 
the constitution of the United States ; and where conflicting State govern- 
ments have resulted from the war, the legitimacy of all shall be submitted to 
the Supreme Court of the United States. 

4. The re-establishment of all federal courts in the several States, with 
powers as defined by the constitution and laws of Congress. 

5. The people and inhabitants of all these States to be guaranteed, so far as 
the Executive can, their political rights and franchises, as well as their rights 
of person and property, as defined by the constitution of the United States 
and of the States respectively. 

6. The executive authority of the Government of the United States not to 
disturb any of the people by reason of the late war, so long as they live in 
peace and quiet and abstain from acts of armed hostility, and obey the laws 
in existence at the place of their residence. 

7. In general terms, the war to cease — a general amnesty, so far as the 
Executive of the United States can command, on the condition of the disband- 
ment of the Confederate armies, distribution of the arms, and the resumption 
of peaceable pursuits by the officers and men hitherto composing said armies. 

Not being duly empowered by our respective principals to fulfil these terms, 
we individually and officially pledge ourselves to promptly obtain an answer 
thereto, and to carry out the above programme. 

W. T. Sherman, Major-General, 

Commanding Army U. S. in N. C, 
J. E. Johnston, General, 

Commanding C. S. A. in N. C. 

Sherman's vivid vision of restoring " peace to the banks of 
the Rio Grande" did not take at Washington. The announce- 
ment there of the nature and terms of his conference witii 
Johnston was the signal for the outpouring of such censure 
and denunciation as required all his military reputation to 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAE. 225 

withstand. In fact, Sherman had committed the unpardonable 
offence of attempting to substitute for the idea of subjugation 
that of a restored Union ; and it was easy enough' now to see 
tliat the profession of the latter purpose had all along been 
nothing more than the mask of the real designs of the Wash- 
ington Government, which w^ould be content with nothing 
short of the abolition of slavery in the South, the extinction of 
the State governments, or their reduction to provisional estab- 
lishments, and the programme of a general confiscation of 
property. The President rejected Sherman's terms; the de- 
partment disallowed them, and General Grant, although a 
warm personal friend of Sherman, disapproved them. 

It was fiercely argued by the Washington authorities that 
the terms proposed by Sherman would bring the war to naught; 
that if the State governments were re-established in the South, 
they might re-enact slavery, and set up a power in defiance of 
the General Government ; and that it was the madness of gen- 
erosity to abolish the confiscation laws, and relieve " rebels" 
from all pains and penalties for their crimes. 

General Sherman replied to the censures uttered or instigated 
at Washington, by including in the official report of his cam- 
paign an elaborate justification of his course in entering upon 
the convention with Johnston which was disavowed by the 
Government. The substance of his defence Avas, that General 
Johnston wished, in addition to the terms granted to General 
Lee, some general concessions that would enable him to con- 
trol his followers until they could be got. back to tlie neighbor- 
hood of their homes, thereby saving North Carolina from the 
devastation wliich would result from turning the men loose 
and unprovided for, and by the pursuit of these scattered bodies 
through the State. All of Sherman's generals were in favor 
of his granting, as far as lay in his power, such concessions. 
At the next meeting Sherman stated that Johnston satisfied 
him that he had power to disband all the Confederate armies, 
as well as those under his own immediate command. What 
the Confederate commander especially dreaded was, that the 
States would be dismembered and deprived of any political 
existence, and that the absolute disarming of his men would 
leave the South powerless and exposed to the depredations of 
assassins and robbers. " In any case," concluded Sherman, 

15 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAK. 

" the memorandum was a mere basis for reference to the Pres- 
ident, to enable him, if he chose, at one blow to dissipate the 
power of the Confederacy, which had threatened the national 
safety for years. It admitted of modilication, alteration, and 
change. It had no appearance of an ultimatum, and by no 
false reasoning can it be construed into a usurpation of powers 
on my part." 

The dissatisfaction at Washington with Sherman's conduct 
was so extreme, that Grant was ordered to proceed at once to 
North Carolina, to take control of Sherman's" army, and to 
force Johnston to an immediate and unconditional surrender. 
In this instance, Grant again showed that magnanimity which 
seems to have been largely developed in the hours of his 
triumph, and in the last scenes of the war — at a time, indeed, 
when the true character of the popular hero is most surely 
tested. In the most fortunate period of the life of any living 
man in America, Grant was not intoxicated by vanity or 
conceit. He M-as incapable of an attempt upon the reputation 
of a rival. He went to ISTorth Carolina, but he kept the opera- 
tions in the hands of Sherman. He insisted upon giving him 
the honor of concluding the final negotiations with Johnston, 
and receiving his surrender. It was concluded on the same 
terms as had been conceded to General Lee. 



SURRENDEK OF TAYLOR'S ARMT. 

On the 4th of May, General Dick Taylor surrendered to 
General Canby all " the forces, munitions of war, etc., in the 
Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana." 
The negotiations for 'this surrender took place at Citronville, 
Alabatna. The terms were essentially the same as those ac- 
corded to Johnston: officers and men to be paroled until duly 
exchanged or otherwise released by the United States ; officers 
to give their individual paroles ; commanders of regiments and 
companies to sign paroles for their men ; arms and munitions 
to be given up to the United States ; officers and men to be 
allowed to return to their homes, and not to be molested so 
long as they kept their paroles, and obeyed the laws where 
they reside, but persons resident in Northern States not to 



THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 227 

return without permission ; officers to be allowed to retain their 
side arms, private horses, and baggage; horses, the private 
property of enlisted men, not to be taken from them, but they 
to be allowed to retain them for private purposes only. This 
surrender virtually involved that of the Confederate vessels 
blockaded in the Tombigbee Eiver. 



SURRENDER OF KIRBY SMITh's ARMY. 

In the first days of May, 1865, all the Confederate forces 
east of the Mississippi River had been surrendered. But west 
of that stream, in Western Louisiana and Texas, there remained 
a considerable force of Confederates, under command of 
General E. Kirby Smith. There was yet a prospect that the 
war might be continued there for some indefinite period. The 
country was ill adapted for the advance of an invading array. 
The fortune of the Confederate arms in the Trans-Mississippi 
had been superior, in the average of successes, to that east of 
the river ; because there our forces, not tied down to any par- 
ticular cities or forts, or any particular line of defence — which 
indeed had been the cardinal error in the general system of the 
Confederate warfare — had fought as opportunity occurred, and 
generall}^ on ground of their own selection. 

When the news of Lee's surrender first reached Kirby Smith, 
he issued, from his headquarters at Shreveport, a stirring gen- 
eral order to his troops. He reminded them that they had the 
means of long resisting invasion ; he declared that they had 
hopes of succor from abroad ; he promised them that if they 
protracted the struggle, they would surely receive the aid of 
nations who already deeply sympathized with them. He 
said : 

"The great resources of the department, its vast extent, the 
numbers, discipline, and the efficiency of the army, will secure 
to our country terms that a proud people can with honor 
accept, and may, under the providence of God, be the means 
of checking the triumph of our enemy, and securing the final 
success of our cause." 

War meetings were held in difl'erent parts of Texas. At 
Houston, General Magruder addressed the citizens ; he declared 



228 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

that lie was not at all discouraged by the position of affairs ; 
and he ended by protesting that he had rather be a '< Camanche 
Indian" than bow the knee to the Yankees. In Washington 
County, the citizens submitted to the military authorities a pro- 
position that every white male over the age of thirteen years 
should be called into the army ; that every male slave should 
be brought in with his master; and that every white female 
should be provided with arms. Kesolutions and plans of this 
sort were rife for some weeks in Texas. 

But these were but spasmodic expressions of the public 
mind in the first moments of disappointment and rage; they 
lacked resolution and steadiness. When Kirby Smith published 
his address at Shreveport, the extent of the disasters east of 
the Mississippi Eiver was not fully known. When it was fully 
known, a demoralization, which it was impossible to check, 
quickly ensued in Smith's army, and involved most of the 
people of Texas. His force was daily wasting away by deser- 
tions, and it had received but few accessions from across the 
Mississippi. On the 23d of May, he sent officers to General 
Canby, at Baton Rouge, to negotiate terms of surrender. 
These were agreed upon on the 26th of May, and were such as 
had been conceded to the other Confederate forces.* 

With this act there passed from the great stage of the war 
the last armed Confederate. The last action of the war had 
been a skirmish near Brazos, in Texas. Peace now reigned 
from the Potomac to Rio Grande. 

Contrary to the plausible expectations of those who supposed 
that if the war went adverse to the South, it would drag out 
its last terms in irregular fighting in mountain warfare, and 
such desultory contests, complete and profound peace fell 

* On the 1st of June, General Brown, commanding the Yankee forces, 
occupied and garrisoned Brownsville. On the 2d of June, Generals Kirby 
Smith and Magruder met, in the harbor of Galveston, General A. J. Smith, 
representing IMajor-General Canby, and General Kirby Smith then and there 
signed the terms of surrender previously agreed on at New Orleans. On the 
5th of June, full and formal possession of Galveston was delivered up to the 
Yankee forces, and the flag of the Union raised. On the 8th of June, Admiral 
Thatcher went ashore, and was received by the Confederate naval and 
military authorities, who requested a part of the United States naval force to 
remain there i'or their protection. General Sheridan was subsequently 
assigned to command in Texas, and the blockade of Galveston raised. 



THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAK. 229 

upon the Confederacy as the cahn after the hurricane. "Sur- 
render" was the word, as the news of Lee's disaster travelled 
from point to point, from camp to camp, in the Confederacy. 
The quick succession of these surrenders — the suddenness and 
completeness of the catastrophe — show plainly enough that 
there was a widely spread rottenness in the affairs of the Con- 
federacy, and that its cause went down in a general demoraliza- 
tion of the arm"" and people. 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX No. I. 



AMERICAN IDEAS: THE KEYS TO THE HISTORY OF THE WAR. 



Political Iconocltism in America.— The two idols of " the Constitution" and " the 
Union." — Extravagant praises of the Constitution. — Its true value. — It contained a 
noble principle and ghiring defects.— Character of tlie founders of tiie Constitution. 
— Hamilton. — Franl^lin. — His cool^ery-book pliilosophy. — His absurdities in the 
Convention.- — The call for the Convention that formed the Cotistitution. — Three 
parties in the Convention. — The idea of a " national" governnient. — Conflict be- 
tween the small and large States. ^The result of this, the distinguishing feature of 
the Constitution. — That feature an accident, and not an a priori discovery. — Enu- 
meration of defects in the Constitution. — Tlie weakness and ignorance of its fi-amers. 
— Its one conspicuo\is virtue and original principle. — (Combination of State-rights 
■with a common autliority. — How involved in the construction of the Senate. — How 
made more precise in the Amendments. — Particulars in which the element of iAs 
States was recognized. — A new rule of construction applied to the American Union. 
— The necessity wliich originated it. — The Constitution of the United States not a 
political revolution. — Tlie creature of the States. — True interpretation of its moral 
grandeur. — The bond of the Union a voluntary one. — No mission apart from the 
States. — Why coercion of the States was not necessary. — How the Union stood 
for an American nationality. — Its power to reach individuals.— T\\& Union, in 
practice, rather a rough companionship than a national identity. — Eight of seces- 
sion. — Not necessary to discuss it. — The development of the Union a North and 
South, and not disintegrated States. — Profound invention of Calhoun of South Car- 
olina. — How it was a Union measure, and not " NuUilication." 

An effect of great civil commotions in the history of a peo- 
ple is to liberate reason, and to give to intelligence the oppor- 
tunity to assert itself against the traditions and political 
idolatries of the past. Such a period is essentially one of 
political iconoclasm — the breaking of idols which we find we 
have heretofore unduly cherished, and with it the recovery 
from the delusions of an unworthy and traditional worship. 
When there is little in the present to interest men, and their 



234: THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

lives are passed in an established routine, it is natural for them 
to exaggerate and to adorn the past. But when the present 
has its own historical convulsion, it is then that men find new 
standards with which to judge the past, and a period in which 
rightly to estimate it, — destroying or dwarfing, it is true, much 
that before claimed their admiration or enchained their wor- 
ship ; but, on the other hand, ofttimes exalting what before 
had had an obscure and degraded place in popular estimation. 
It is in such periods that the native historian of his country 
finds the justest time for determining the correct value of the 
past, and distinguishing between what were its mere idols, and 
what should have been its true aspirations. 

It is thus, from the stand-point of the recent great war in 
America, that one may justly contemplate the true value of 
its past history, measure correctly its great men of a former 
period, and master the delusions of an old political idolatry. 
The world knoM's how before this war the people of North 
America had, for nearly three-quarters of a century, wor- 
shipped, as its two political idols, the Federal constitution and 
the Union of States formed under it. Looking back at these 
from the present period in American history, which has freed 
us from the restraints of mere sentiment and tradition, he who 
thus makes the calm and intelligent retrospect is astonished to 
find what extravagance and delusion were in the minds of 
these worshippers, and what acts of devotion were made to 
what were ofttimes but gilded images of clay. 

For two generations of men, the almost miraculous wisdom 
of the Federal constitution of America has been preached and 
exclaimed, until it was thought to be political blasphemy to 
impugn it. Its praises were hymned by poets. The public 
orator was listened to with impatience who had not some ex- 
aggerated tribute to pay to the sacred virtues of what Daniel 
"Webster called tlie consti-z!(?wj-tion, and the almost angelic 
excellence of " the forefathers" who had framed it. It was 
seriously asserted, that in this instrument had been combined 
the political wisdom of all ages, and that it was the epitome 
of the human science of government. The insolent heights to 
which this extravagance arose were astounding. The world's 
last hopes of good government were said to be contained in 
these dozen pages of printed matter. 



APPENDIX. 235 

Unhappily for such hopes, or for such boasts, we are now at 
a period when we may estimate the right value of this won- 
derful constitution, and take the severe judgment of history 
upon it. We may now dare to state that judgment briefly: 
it is, that never did a political instrument contain, from the 
necessity of its circumstances, a nobler principle, or present 
the folly and ignorance of men in more glaring defects, than did 
the Federal constitution of the United States. 

It is no longer required, by the political fashion of the times, 
for an American to say, that the men who formed this consti- 
tution were either intellectual giants or wonderful scholars. 
Beyond a few names — such as Randolph and Patrick Henry, 
" the forest-born Demosthenes," of Virginia, Pinckney and 
Luther Martin, of Maryland, Hamilton, of New York, and 
Franklin, of Pennsylvania — the Convention which formed this 
instrument may be described as a company of very plain men, 
but little instructed in political science, who, in their debates, 
showed sometimes the crudities and chimeras of ignorant re- 
form, and exhibited more frequently a loose ransacking of 
histo-ry for precedents and lessons, such as rather might have 
been expected in a club of college sophomores than in a council 
of statesmen. 

The two last names mentioned on the list of distinction in 
the Convention — Hamilton and Franklin — may be taken as ex- 
amples of the American exaggeration of their public men, 
which, indeed, more peculiarly belonged to the people of the 
Northern States — that division of the American people which 
after-events have classified as Yankees. Hamilton, who had a 
school of his own in the Convention, was readily exalted as an 
idol by the party which he so early begot in the history of his 
country. The man who was honored by pageants and proces- 
sions in the streets of New York, at the close of the Conven- 
tion, must be declared, by the just and unimpassioned historian, 
to have been superficial as a statesman, and defective as a 
scholar. He had, indeed, neither the intuition of genius, nor 
the power of analysis. He was a man of little mind. But he 
had studied a peculiar style in writing, which Washington was 
weak enough to take for a model, and, it is said, sometimes 
appropriated. Tiiere was no point or sharp edges in the stjde 
either of Alexander Hamilton or George Washington. Both 



236 THE LAST YEAE OF THE WAR. 

wrote and spoke in those long sentences in which comrnon- 
phices are pompously dressed up, and in which the sense is so 
overlaid with qualilications that it is almost impossible to 
probe it. But Washington made no pretensions to literature 
and scholarship, while Hamilton had no titles to fame other 
than these. And in these it must be confessed that he had 
scarcely any other merit than that of a smooth constructer of 
words, a character which with the vulgar often passes for both 
orator and statesman, '\}'\ d' y- '"! 'j-, ' ,',','-'',1 C '- 9^' ^'lA 

Benjamin Franklin was thoroughly ia representative Yankee, 
the first clear-cut type we recognize in history of that material- 
ism, coarse selfishness, pelf, low cunning, and commercial 
smartness, which passes with the contemporary Yankee as the 
truest philosophy and highest aim of life. It is alike curious 
and amusing to examine the grounds of estimation in the minds 
of his countrymen, which ctmferred the high-sounding title of 
philosopher on an old gentleman in blue stockings, who, in 
France, was the butt of the Parisian wits, and who left a legacy 
of wisdom to posterity in the " Maxim,s of Poor Richard^ 
How many modern Yankees have been educated in the school 
of the "Maxims'' of Franklin it would be difficult to over-esti- 
mate. If a gross and materialistic value of things is to pass 
as " philosophy ;" if the hard maxims of selfishness, and the 
parings of penuriousness, such as "Poor Richard" dins to 
American youth, do really contain the true lessons and mean- 
ing of life, then we may declare, in the phrases of Yankee ad- 
miration, that Benjamin Franklin was a philosopher and a sage, 
who eclipsed all other lights in the world, and " whipped the 
universe." But really, after all, may we not doubt the value of 
this cookery-book philosophy of smart things ; think it doubt- 
ful whether the mighty problem of how pence make pounds, 
be the largest or best part of human wisdom ; and conclude 
that Benjamin Franklin, though not the greatest celebrity 
America has ever produced, was neither worse nor better 
than a representative Yankee. 

We are almost inclined to laugh at the part which this queer 
figure acted in the Convention which formed the constitution 
of the United States. No member had more clap-traps in the 
way of political inventions. His ignorance of political science 
and of popular motives was alike profound ; and we find him 



APPENDIX. 237 

proposing to govern the country after a fashion scarcely less 
beautiful and less practicable than the Republic of Plato and 
the Arcadia of Sydney. He tliought that magistrates might 
serve the public from patriarchal affection or for the honor 
of titles. He quoted in the Convention a maxim that sounds 
curiously enough to American ears : that "in all cases of public 
service, the less profit, the greater honor." He was in favor 
of the nonsense of a plural executive. He insisted in the Con- 
vention on the practicability of "finding three or four men in 
all the United States with public spirit enough to bear sitting 
in peaceful council, for perhaps an ecpial term, merely to pre- 
side over our civil concerns, and see that our laws were duly 
executed." Such was the political sagacity of this person, 
who, it must be confessed, made what reputation he had rather 
in the handbooks of Yankee economj^ than in monuments of 
statesmanship). 

But we shall find a better key to the real value of the con- 
stitution in a summary review of its debates, than in a portrait- 
ure, however interesting, of the men who composed it. The 
Convention of delegates assembled from tlie different States at 
Philadelphia, on the second Monday in May, 1787, had met on 
a blind errand. They had been called by Congress, "for the 
sole and express purpose of revising the Articles of Confedera- 
tion, and reporting to Congress and the several legislatures 
such alterations and provisions therein, as shall, when agreed 
to in Congress and confirmed by the States, render the Federal 
constitution adequate to the exigencies of government and the 
preservation of the Union." 

This singularly confused language, in the call of the Conven- 
tion, naturally gave rise to differences of opinion. One party 
in the Convention — representing what was known as the New 
Jersey proposition — took the ground that its power was limited 
to a mere revision and amendment of tlie existino; Articles of 
Confederation : that it was, therefore, necessary to take the 
present federal system as the basis of action, to proceed upon 
terms of the federal equality of the States ; in short, to remedy 
the defects of the existing government, not to supplant it. 
Hamilton and his party were for a new and violent system of 
reform. They were said to favor the establismeut of a mon- 
archy. The extent to which this was true is, that they were in 



238 THE LAST YEAIi OF THK WAK. 

favor of the annihilation of the State governments and the perma- 
nent tenure of public offices. A third party in the Convention 
avoided both extremes, insisted upon a change of the federal 
principle, and proposed a " national" government, in the sense 
of a supreme power with respect to certain objects common 
between the States, and committed to it, and which would 
have some kind of direct compulsory action upon individuals. 
The word " national" was used only in this limited sense. The 
great defect of the existing Confederation was, that it had no 
power to reach individuals, and thus enforce its decrees. The 
proposed Union, or " national" government, was to be a league 
of States, but with power to reach individuals ; and yet these 
only in certain severely defined respects, arid through powers 
expressly delegated by the States. In the nature of things, this 
power could not act upon the States collectively; that is, not 
in the usual and peaceful mode in which governments are con- 
ducted. All that was claimed for it, and all that could be 
claimed for it, was to reach individuals in those specifications 
of authority that the States should make to it. 

The plan of this party was no sooner developed in the Con- 
vention than it met the furious opposition of the smaller 
States. It was declared by Lul^her Martin, that those who 
advocated it " wished to establish such a system as could give 
their own States undue power and influence in the government 
over the other States." Both Mr. Randolph, of Virginia, and 
Mr. Pinckney, of Maryland, who had brought before the 
Convention drafts of the plan referred to, agreed that the 
members of the Senate should be elected by the House of 
Representatives ; thus, in effect, giving to the larger States 
power to construct the Senate as they chose. Mr. Randolph 
had given additional offence to the smaller States. He pro- 
posed that, instead of an equal vote by States, " the right of 
suffrage in the National Legislature ought to be proportioned 
to the quotas of contribution, or to the number of free inhabit- 
ants." 

There was thus excited in the Convention a jealousy between 
the larger and smaller States; the former insisting upon a 
preponderating influence in both houses of the ISTational 
Legislature, and the latter insisting on an equality of repre- 
sentation in each house. This jealous controversy is tracked 



APPENDIX. 239 

through the debates of the Convention. It proceeded to a 
decree of warmth and anirer in which the Convention was on. 
the point of dissolution. When the vote was taken, five States 
were for an ecpialitj of representation and five against it. At 
this critical period, a conference committee was appointed. It 
resulted in a compromise ; tlie opponents of an unequal repre- 
sentation agreeing to yield their objections to it in the lower 
House, provided its advocates would pledge themselves to 
support an equal representation in the Senate : and on this 
basis of agreement was reared the constitution of the United 
States of America. 

The reader must observe here, that the great distinguishing 
feature of this constitution, the peculiar virtue of the American 
system — namely, the mixed representation of the people and 
the States — was purely the result of a jealousy between the 
larger and the smaller States, the fruit of an accident. It 
contained the true virtue of a political instrument, which, as 
we shall see, was otherwise full of faults and glaring with 
defects. It was that in which it was original. But it was 
not an a priori discovery. It was not the i-esult of the wisdom 
of our ancestors. History abounds in instances where acci- 
dental or empirical settlements have afterwards been discovered 
to contain great elements of wisdom and virtue ; and it has 
been natural and pleasing for succeeding generations to ac- 
count these ratlier as tlie result of human reason and prescience, 
than as the product of blind circumstances. But we are forced 
to confess, tliat in that great political novelty of the American 
system — in which the world was to see, for the first time 
combined and harmonized, the principle of geographical 
sovereignties with that of a confederate unity, which, for 
certain purposes, was to stand for national identity — the 
" wisdom" of our forefathers had no part, but acted uncon- 
sciously under the pressure of circumstances, or the direction 
of divine Providence. 

This statement is not pleasant to American vanity. But 
it is due to the truth of history. It is highly probable that 
the framers of the constitution did not fully comprehend the 
importance of the principles of the combination of State 
sovereignty with that of the simple republic on which they 
had stumbled. If they had, it might be supposed that they 



24:0 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAK. 

would liave defined with a mncli severer accuracy the political 
relations of the States and the General Government ; for it 
lias been for the want of such accuracy that room lias been 
found, at least for disputation, and the creation of two po- 
litical parties, which have run through the whole of American 
history. 

And here it is we must turn from the consideration of that 
principle in the constitution whicli was its distinctive feature 
and its saving virtue, to view briefly the enormous defects and 
omissions of an instrument that has shared so much of the 
undue admiration of mankind. 

It is impossible to resist the thought, that the frainers of the 
constitution were so much occupied with the controversy of 
jealousy between the large and the small States that they over- 
looked many great and obvious questions of government, 
which have since been fearfully developed in the political 
history of America. Beyond the results and compromises of 
that jealousy, the debates and the work of the Convention show 
one of the most wonderful blanks that has, perhaps, ever 
occuri-ed in the political inventions of civilized mankind. 
They left behind them a list of imperfections in political pre- 
Bcience, a want of provision for the exigencies of their country, 
such as has seldom been known in the history of mankind. 

A system of negro servitude existed in some of the States. 
It was an object of no solicitude in the Convention, The only 
references in the constitution to it are to be found in a provision 
in relation to the rendition of fugitives " held to service or 
labor," and in a mixed and empirical rule of popular represen- 
tation. However these provisions may imply the true status 
of slavery, how much is it to be regretted that the Convention 
did not make (what might have been made so easily) an ex- 
plicit declaration on the subject, that would have put it beyond 
the possibility of dispute, and removed it from even the 
plausibilities of party controversy ! 

For many years the veiy obvious question of the power of 
the General Government to make " internal improvements" 
has agitated the councils of America ; and yet there is no text 
in the constitution to regulate a matter which should have 
stared its authors in the face, but what maybe derived, by 



APPENDIX. 241 

the most forced and distant construction, from the powers of 
Congress " to regulate commerce," and to " declare war," and 
" raise and support armies." 

For a longer period, and with a fierceness once almost fatal 
to the Union, has figured in the politics of America, " the 
tariff question," a contest between a party for revenue and a 
party for protective prohibitions. Both parties have fought 
over that vague platitude of the constitution, the power of 
Congress " to regulate commerce ;" and in the want of a more 
distinct language on a subject of such vast concern, there has 
been engendered a controversy which has progressed from the 
threshold of the history of the Union up to the period of its 
dissolution. 

With the territorial possessions of America, even at the date 
of the Convention, and with all that the future promised in the 
expansion of a system that yet scarcely occupied more than 
the water-slopes of a continent, it might be supposed that the 
men who formed the constitution would have prepared a full 
and explicit article for the government of the territories. 
That vast and intricate subject — the power of the General 
Government over the territories, the true nature of these 
establishments, the status and political privileges of their 
inhabitants — is absolutely dismissed with this bald provision 
in the constitution of the United States : 

" New States may be admitted by Congress into tMs Union." — Art. iv., 
Sec. 3. 

But however flagrant these omissions of the constitution, 
and however through them sprung up much that was serious 
and deplorable in party controversy, we must lose neither 
sight nor appreciation of the one conspicuous and character- 
istic virtue of this instrument. That was the combination of 
State rights with an authority which should administer the 
common concerns of the States. This principle was involved 
in the construction of the Senate. It was again more fully 
and perfectly developed in the amendments of the constitu- 
tion ; these amendments having a peculiarity and significance 
as parts of the instrument, since they were, in a certain sense, 

16 



242 THE LAST YEAK OF THE WAR. 

conditions precedent made by the States to their ratification of 
it. They provide : 

" The enumeration in the constitution, of certain rights, shall not be con- 
Btrued to deny or disparage others retained by the people. 

" Tlie jwwers not delegated to the United States by the constitution, nor 
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the 
people." * 

It may be said, that whereas the element of the States was 
recognized in the construction of the Senate, that element was 
precisely adjusted and admeasured in the amendments which 
we have just quoted. In the debates in the legislatures of the 
difierent States on the ratification of the constitution, it was 
never doubted that their original existence was already rec- 
ognized in it ; not only in the text of the instrument, but in 
the composition hy States of the convention that framed it, 
and in the ratification hy States which was necessary to pro- 
mulgate it, and give it force and existence. The design of the 
amendments referred to, was simply to adjust in more precise 
language a vital and important element in the new system, 
and to declare formally what sense the States had of it, and 
with what understanding they approved it. 

* These amendments, •which were the fruit of the legislative wisdom of the 
States, not of that of the Convention, and were designed to give a full devel- 
opment and a proper accuracy to vrhat was certainly ill-performed work in it, 
will be found embodied in the official declarations of at least six of the States, 
coupled with their ratification of the constitution. 

Massachusetts. — " That it be explicitly declared, that all powers not ex- 
pressly delegated by the aforesaid constitution, are reserved to the several 
States, to be by them exercised." 

New Hampshire.— " That it be explicitly declared, that all powers not ex- 
pressly and particularly delegated by the aforesaid constitution, are reserved 
to the several States, to be by them exercised." 

South Carolina. — " Tliis convention doth also declare, that no section or 
paragraph of the said constitution warrants a construction that the States do 
not retain every power not expressly relinquished by them, and vested in the 
General Government of the Union." 

Virginia. — " We, the delegates of the people of Virginia, etc., do, in the 
name and in behalf of the people of Virginia, declare and make known that 
the powers granted under the constitution, being derived from the people of 
the Unite_d States, may be resumed by them, whensoever the same shall be 
perverted to their injury or oppression, and that every power not granted there- 
by remains with them, and at their will ; that, therefore, no right, of any de- 
'• nomination, can be cancelled, abridged, restrained, or modified, by the Con- 



APPENDIX. 243 

But even if these official texts are — as a party in America 
has long contended — insnfficient to establish the political 
element of the States, and to measure it as the depository of 
sovereignty by the rule of reserved' rights, we are left a rule 
of construction as to the true nature of the Atnerican Union, 
which is completely out of the reach of any ingenious torture 
of language, and far above any art of quibble on words.* 



gress, by the Senate, or House of Representatives, acting in any capacity, by 
the President, or any department or oflBcer of the United States, except in 
those instances in which power is given by the constitution for those purposes ; 
and that, among otlier essential rights, the liberty of conscience, and of the 
press, cannot be cancelled, abridged, restrained, or modified, by any authority 
of the United States." 

New York. — " That the powers of government may be resumed by the 
people whensoever it ghall become necessary to their happiness ; that every 
power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by the said constitution clearly 
delegated to the Congress of the United States, or the departments of the Gov- 
ernment thereof, remains to the people of the several States, or to their respec- 
tive State governments, to whom they may have granted the same ; and that 
those clauses in the said constitution, which declare that Congress shall not 
have or exercise certain powers, do not imply that Congress is entitled to any 
powers not given by the said constitution ; but such clauses are to be con- 
strued either as exceptions to certain specified powers, or as inserted merely 
for greater caution." 

RnoDE Island. — " That those clauses in the constitution which declare that 
Congress shall not have or exercise certain powers, do not imply that Congress 
is entitled to any powers not given by the said constitution ; but such clauses 
are to be construed as exceptions to certain specified powers, or as inserted 
merely for greater caution." 

* It is curious to notice to what lengths of verbal torture that party in 
America that denied the sovereignty of the States, and represented the Union 
as a popular consolidated government, have gone. 

Thus it has been fashionable to quote in the school of consolidation a decla- 
ration in the letter of George Washington, president of the Convention, sub- 
mitting the constitution to the States for their ratification, in which he says : 

" It is obviously impracticable in the Federal Government of these States 
to secure all the rights of independent sovereignty to each, and yet provide 
for the interest and safety of all." — Eliot's Debates, Vol. I., p. 17. 

Yet the word " all," which we have capitalized for emphasis, and which a 
hasty reader might lose in the context, is directly opposed to the theory of 
consolidation, and directly implies the residuum of sovereignty in the States. 

Again, the word " United States" has been used as a popular argument for 
a consolidated government. Yet we find in the history of America that the 
same words designated all the former associations of the colonies and of the 
States ; that the first assembly of delegates to take into consideration the 
grievances that led to the revolt from the British crown were known as the 



244 THE LAST YEAK OF THE WAR. ^ 

f 

That rule is found in the historical circumstances and exigen- 
cies in which the constitution of the United States was formed. 
It is decisive. For surely there is no juster measure of a grant 
of political powers than the necessity which originated it, if 
that necessity be at once intelligible and precise. 

Such was the necessity which originated the constitution of 
the United States. It was a necessity for purely economical 
purposes. It could not have been intended as a revolution in 
the sense of a proclamation of new civil polity ; for the civil 
institutions of the States, as derived from the common law of 
England, were already perfect and satisfactory, and have 
remained without material change for nearly a century. The 
constitution of the United States was thus not a political revo- 
lution. It was a convenience of the States, growing out of 
their wants of a system by which they might have a common 
agent and a uniform code on concerns common between them- 
selves. Is it too much to conclude, therefore, that the new 
Union had no mission apart from the States ; that it was the 
government of the States ; that, in short, it could not have 
been intended to destroy the very bodies which invoked it as 
a benefactor to each as well as to all ? 

It is in this sense that the moral grandeur of the American 
Union is interpreted ; in this sense that its great political 
virtue was contained. There was put before the eye of man- 



Congress of delegates of the United States ; that the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence emanated from " the representatives of the United States of America," 
and that the style of the subsequent confederation was declared in its first 
article to be, " The United States of America." So, if the words " United 
States" are at all to be considered, their natural force and their precedent 
use are alike in direct opposition to the dogma of consolidation. 

Of a similar style of puerile argument for this dogma is this : Whereas, tho 
preamble of the constitution recites, " We, the people of the United States," 
the people are, therefore, represented as one corporation. Daniel Webster, who 
was always ready to catch at sophomorial crudities, actually descended to an 
argument so absurd. The explanation of this phraseology is simple to the 
last degree. Tho names of the contracting States were first inserted in the 
preamble of the constitution. They were suppressed because it was still im- 
certain what States would adopt it ; and as it was impossible to know which 
might be the first nine States of the Union — that number being necessary to 
establish the constitution as between themselves — it was agreed to use the 
corporate style we have quoted in the preamble, that it might include those 
cmly who adheied to it. 



APPENDIX. 245 

kind, not a consolidated nationality ; not a simple republic, 
with an anomalous and indefinable appendage of " States," 
which were not provinces, or cantons, or territories, and yet 
subordinate ; not some undefined and misshapen political 
mongrel ; but a spectacle such as it had never seen — an asso- 
ciation of coequal and sovereign States, with a common 
authority, the subjects of which were yet sufficient enough to 
give it the efi'ect of an American and national identity ; " a 
republic of republics ;" a government which derived its entire 
life from the good-will, the mutual interests, and the uncon- 
strained devotion of the States which at once originated and 
composed it. 

It may be said that the admission of the sovereignty of the 
States breaks at once the bond of their association. Yet, this 
can be said only in a low and narrow sense. The wants and 
hopes of men operate with the same effect in political bodies 
as in the social community. Men will scarcely withdraw from 
a society in which they are alike happy and fortunate. Nor 
was it to be supposed that any of the American States would 
be so mad as to withdraw from a Union through which they 
were to be profited and to ascend, as long as it fulfilled its de- 
signs of affording them protection against foreign powers, 
commercial interchanges, justice and welcome among them- 
selves, the charms and benefits of social intercourse ; or that 
after these, its essential designs might have, within the exigen- 
cies of history or the possibilities of human depravity, ceased 
to be fulfilled, any State could be held in it without violating 
quite as well the spirit of republican institutions, and the obli- 
gations of public morals, as the written text of a compact. 

Such undoubtedly were the designs and the law of the 
American Union. It was a compact which covered only the 
interests which it specified ; yet quite large enough to stand 
as ah American nationality for all practical purposes. It had 
no d)^nastic element ; it had no mission separate from the 
States; it had no independent authority over individuals^ 
except within the scope of the powers delegated to it by the 
States. The States retained the power to control their own 
soil, their own domestic institutions, and their own morals. 
In respect to the powers which they prohibited to the General 
Government, they retained, of necessity^ the right of exclusive 



246 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

judgment. That Government was not a mere league; it did 
have the power to reach individuals within the scope of powers 
delegated by the States ; and as to these powers, its own courts 
— the Federal judiciary — were made the exclusive judge. In 
this sense — only in this sense — ^it had the qualities of a gov- 
ernment ; but a government founded, exclusively on the good 
of the States, resting in their consent, and to which the law of 
force was as foreign in respect of its maintenance, as it had 
been in respect of its ordination. 

The Union was beautiful in theory. It might have been 
beautiful in practice. If it did prove in the history of America 
rather a rough companionship, scarcely ever a national iden- 
tity in the common concerns intrusted to it, such was not the 
result of inherent defects, but of that party abuse and usurpa- 
tion, in which have been wrecked so many of the political 
fabrics of mankind. 

The right of secession, whether involved or not by the prin- 
ciple of State sovereignty, was not necessarily the weak point 
of the Union. We shall see hereafter that the development 
of this Union was two hostile sections — a political J^orth and 
a political South — and not disintegration of States ; that the 
Union was sacrificed, not to the dogma of secession, but to the 
overruling event of a sectional rupture. In view of, and in 
connection with, these events, it will be wholly unnecessary to 
discuss " the right of secession." 

Forty years after the ordination of the constitution of the 
United States, we shall see how there sprung up the profound 
invention of the greatest political scholar of America — John 
C. Calhoun, of South Carolina — to avoid this very issue of 
secession ; how it was designed to erect over the Union a 
council of States, and to submit it to their august guardian- 
ship ; how it represented the true and sublime theory of the 
association of the States ; and how, avoiding the issue of seces- 
sion, it proposed a measure that would have perpetuated the 
Union, carried the constitution of the United States to the 
liighest point of development, perfected the American system, 
introduced into it the principle of adaptability to all circum- 
stances, and given it that elasticity which is the first virtue of 
wise governments, and the best element of their endurance. 
We shall see how this scheme of the South Carolina statesmen 



APPENDIX. 247 

— emphatically a Union tneasure — was rejected by the 

Northern States under a shallow clamor and the coarsest and 

most ignorant of all party libels in America — " Nullification ;" 

and how this rejection left no other resource to dissatisfied 

States than what Mr. Calhoun of all men most deplored, and 

most sought to avoid — disunion. These assertions may already 

sound strange to those who have got their political history of 

America from Northern sources. But we must not anticipate 

too much here what is undoubtedly the most interesting period 

in American history, between the dates of Union and Disunion 

— the era of Calhoun. 
******** 



248 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAS. 



II. 



What the American colonies contended for. — Burke's idea. — The first American Con- 
gress. — Its demands. — How the question of independence was developed. — Vir- 
ginia the first to move for independence. — The Declaration of Independence. — The 
Articles of Confederation. — Diverse character and circumstances of the colonies. — 
The gentry of Virginia and the Carolinas.^ — Early type of the Yankee. — Difference 
of races. — Its value in historical inquiries. — Commercial spirit of New England 
in the revolution. — The nature and the value of " the Confederation." — John Ad- 
ams' idea. — " Perpetual Union." — The Confederation a makeshift of the war. — 
" State-rights" in the treaty of 1783. — How the revolution succeeded. — Its illustra- 
tion of the value of endurance. — Liberty invariably the fruit of rebellion. — The 
two conditions of all history. 

In their dissatisfaction with the British government, the 
American colonies did not at first propose the experiment of 
independence. They only claimed equality with Englishmen 
at home in respect of rights ; contending that the ancient and 
existing charters of Englishmen — the guaranties of Magna 
Charta, and the later muniments acquired under the Stuarts 
— were theirs by birthright ; and resenting the idea that they 
were an inferior class of British subjects, to be governed as 
Charles I. proposed, and as even that luminary of the law — 
Blackstone — with curious obtuseness justified, as the denizens 
of a conquered country. 

No man in England better understood the temper of the 
colonists, or better divined the future as containing the ques- 
tion of peace and war between Great Britain and America, 
than did Edmund Burke. This illustrious man, who was not 
only a superb artist of words, but an orator in action, defended 
the cause of the colonies with a happiness of expression, and a 
measure of zeal, that have since confirmed to the world his repu- 
tation as the most acute and eloquent of English statesmen. 
" Freedom," said he, "and not servitude, is the cure of an- 
archy." He declared in the House of Commons a plan of 
pacification alike simple, generous, and eflfective. " My idea," 
he said, " without considering whether we yield as matter of 
right, or grant as matter of favor, is, to admit the people of 
our colonies into an interest in our constitution." 



APPENDIX. 249 

The pacific counsels did not prevail. The " day-star of the 
English constitution," as Burke termed it — alba stella — was 
not decreed to arise over the troubled waters and shed its influ- 
ence of peace. The colonists were left to contest as best they 
might their claim of equality with other subjects of the Brit- 
ish crown. 

They did nothing more than this on the very threshold of 
the revolution. In 1774, the first American Congress of dele- 
gates met at Philadelphia. On the 14th of October it made 
a declaration and adopted resolutions relative to the rights and 
grievances of the colonies. It was unanimously resolved, " that 
the respective colonies are entitled to the common law of Eng- 
land, and more especially to the great and inestimable privilege 
of being tried by their peers of the vicinage, according to the 
course of that law ;" " that they were entitled to the benefit 
of such statutes as existed at the time of their colonization, 
and which they have, by experience, respectively found to be 
applicable to their several and local circumstances ;" and that 
their ancestors, at the time of their immigration, were " entitled 
to all the rights, liberties, and immunities of free and natural- 
born subjects within the realms of England." 

But with actual hostilities came the full development of the 
question, the opportunity to compromise which had been lost. 
It was the assertion of independence. Such was the reply of 
the colonies, provoked by the insolence of power that had too 
long disdained all means of peace, but what it supposed the 
easy compulsion of three millions of people by the arms of an 
empire, upon which it was boasted the sun never set. 

To Virginia belongs the honor of the first motion for inde- 
pendence. In Congress, on the 7th of June, 1776, the dele- 
gates from Virginia moved, in obedience to instructions from 
their constituents, that the Congress should declare that " these 
United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and inde- 
pendent States ; that they are absolved from all allegiance to 
the British crown ; that all political connection between them 
and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dis- 
solved ; and that measures should be immediately taken for 
procuring the assistance of foreign powers, and a confederation 
formed to bind the colonies more closely together." 

The proposition aroused a deep anxiety, and was received 



250 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAE. 

■with no little opposition. Other colonies had not kept pace 
with the spirit of Virginia. The middle colonies — Maryland, 
Delaware, Pennsylvania, the Jerseys, and New York — were not 
ripe for the dissolution of the British connection. Their dele- 
gates declared that it would be improper for Congress to take 
such a capital step until the voice of the people drove them into it. 

The final decision was postponed to the 1st of July. It was 
taken on the original motion made by tlie delegates of Yir- 
ginia; but the ultimate question was postponed for a day, in 
order to obtain unanimity ; and on the second of July twelve 
colonies gave their voice for it, — New York withdrawing from 
the question for instructions, but subsequently adhering to the 
others through the decision of her convention. But the hesi- 
tation of Congress was not yet entirely over. The motion of 
Virginia has been triumphantly carried ; but it remained to 
pass upon the text of the "declaration" of independence. 
" The pusillanimous idea," said Thomas Jefferson, the author 
of this famous paper, "that we had friends in England worth 
keeping terms with, still haunted the minds of many." But 
the declaration was at last and substantially agreed to on the 
evening of the fourth of July, and subscribed by the auto- 
graplis of the members present ; and thus from this paper, 
which introduced as it were the august ceremony of personal 
pledges, rather than from the official act of Congress on the 
motion of Virginia, concluded on the second of July, dates the 
natal day of American Independence. 

The natural companion of the act of independence — " the 
Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of 
America" — was the confederation of the States, to enable them 
to conduct the war with a common and efi'ective purpose. It 
had been proposed on the motion of Virginia. Eight days 
after the declaration of independence, articles of confederation 
were reported. It was an obvious necessity of the war. The 
average population of the colonies was less than two hundred 
and thirty thousand inhabitants ; and it would have been 
absurd for any one of them to attempt to measure arms singly 
with the British power, and for each to conduct the war on its 
own responsibility. 

It was fortunate indeed that a common military necessity 
had supplied what scarcely any thing else could have sup- 



APPENDIX. 



251 



plied — a political bond between colonies suddenly erected into 
sovereign States. There had been no similarity of natural cir- 
cumstances to unite the colonies. They had been planted at 
different times, from 1606 to 1732, and by different stocks of 
population. Differences of government, the sharpest antago- 
nism of religious faith, the natural difficulties of intercourse, and 
the obstructions of trade between them, as the effect of the 
navigation laws, which hindered the development of their 
marine, had not only separated the colonies, but drawn 
through them lines of exasperated division. 

The New England colonies were settled by a people very 
different from those who laid the foundations of empire in 
Virginia and the Carolinas. In those latter countries the 
notions of chivalry were early planted by the Cavaliers ; and 
in Virginia especially, the British gentry founded many 
families whose names have become illustrious in American 
history.* With such a stock of ancestors in the South the 



* Dr. Randall, in his Life of Jefferson (Vol. I., pp. 3, 4, and 5), has drawn a 
strong and graphic picture of the early lowland aristocracy of Virginia, which 
we reproduce here for its historical interest, especially with reference to its 
contrast to the Puritan stock of population in America : 

" In the early settlement of Virginia, the inhabitants found the river-bot- 
toms of the tide-water region more fertile than the intervening sandy ridges ; 
and the rivers themselves for a long period furnished the only convenient 
means for transporting heavy products to or from the seaboard. The popula- 
tion, therefore, clung to their banks, each new wave of foreign emigration, or 
younger and spreading generation of the inhabitants, advancing higher towards 
their sources. Lands were obtained on easy conditions from the government 
and otherwise ; and provident individuals secured vast estates. This was par- 
ticularly the case on James River, where the most enterprising and wealthy 
of the earlier emigrants established themselves. Some of these, men of par- 
ticular mark and energy, acquired possessions vying in extent with those of 
the proudest nobles of their native land. These were perpetuated in their 
families by entails, the laws regulating which were ultimately rendered more 
stringent in Virginia than in England itself As their lands rose gradually 
in value, the great lowland proprietors began to vie with English nobles in 
wealth as well as in territory. Many of them lived in baronial splendor. 
Their abodes, it is true, were comparatively mean, as the country did not yet 
furnish permanent building materials, except at vast cost, nor did it furnish 
architects to make use of them ; but their tables were loaded with plate and 
with the luxuries of the old and new world ; numerous slaves, and wliite per- 
sons whose times they owned for a term of years, served them in every 
capacity which use, luxury, or ostentation could dictate ; and when they trav. 
elled in state, their cumbrous and richly appointed coaches were dragged by 



252 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

Roundhead regicide of the New England settlements had but 
little sympathy, and few points of agreement. The religion of 
the Puritan settler ; his fierce and relentless persecution, even 
to the extremity of death, of those who dissented from dissent ; 
his hypocritical and canting selfishness, with which he robbed 
the Indians of their lands for " the Lord's people," and sold 
some of them into West Indian slavery ; his pious formulas of 
selfish aggrandizement, were a detestable barrier between hiai 
and the Episcopalian of Virginia and the Carolinas ; and a 
diversity prominent in religion naturally ran through the 
manners, morals, and politics of the two early stocks of popu- 
lation in America. 



six horses, driven by three postillions. But usually the mistress of the house- 
hold, with her children and maids, appropriated this vehicle. The Virginia 
gentleman of that day, with much of the feeling of earher feudal times, when 
the spur was the badge of knighthood, esteemed the saddle the most manly, 
if not the only manly way of making use of the noblest of brutes. He accord- 
ingly performed all his ordinary journeys on horseback. When he went 
forth with his whole household, the cavalcade consisted of the mounted white 
males of his family, the coach-and-six lumbering through the sands, and a ret- 
inue of mounted body-servants, grooms with spare led horses, etc., in the rear. 
" In their general tone of character, the lowland aristocracy of Virginia 
resembled the cultivated landed gentry of the mother country. Numbers of 
them were highly educated and accomplished by foreign study and travel ; 
and nearly all, or certainly much the largest portion, obtained an excellent 
education at William and Mary College, after its establishment, or respectable 
acquirements in the classical schools kept in nearly every parish by the 
learned clergy of the established Church. As a class, they were intelligent, 
polished in manner, high-toned, and hospitable --and sturdy in their loyalty 
and in their adherence to the national Church. Their winters were often 
spent in the gayeties and festivities of the provincial capital ; their summers, 
when not connected with the public service, principally in supervising their 
iminense estates, in visiting each other, and in such amusements as country 
life afforded. Among the latter the chase held a prominent place. Born 
almost to the saddle and to the use of firearms, they were keen hunters ; and 
when the cliase was over they sat round groaning boards, and drank con- 
fusion to Spaniard and Frenchman abroad, and to Roundhead and Prelatist 
at home. When the lurking and predatory Indian became the object of pur- 
suit, no strength of the red-man could withstand, no speed of his elude this 
fiery and gallantly mounted cavalry. The social gulf which separated this 
from the common class of colonists became about as deep and wide, and as 
difficult to overleap in marriage a.nd other social arrangements, as that which 
divided the gentry and peasantry of England. Such were the Carters, the 
Carys, the Burwells, the Byrds, the Fairfaxes, the Harrisons, the Lees, the 
Randolphs, and many other timilies of early Virginia." 



APPENDIX. 253 

It is certainly not a mere speculation which has thought 
to discover in the history of the New England settlements 
some of the elements of the character of the modern Yankee. 
We must, however, take care not to push the speculation too 
far. It has been often an over-refinement in the treatment of 
history to trace up the character of nations to difierences in 
race and blood ; forgetting how much of that character is due 
to those developments of events and interests which have 
taken place between the first beginnings of a people and the 
period of histoi-ical retrospect. We are not disposed to risk 
the analysis of the modern Yankee character on those elements 
of race and blood which were involved in the early settlement 
of America. We shall see, in the progress of this inquiry, how 
much of this character was due to subsequent development and 
education in the crooked paths of their political history, and 
what a large and various addition of meanness was thus made 
to the nature and habit of the original New England colonist. 

But in that early type of the colonist we certainly do dis- 
cover some traits, more or less imperfect, of the Yankee of a 
later period. We would only warn the reader from expecting 
to discover too much here, reminding him that the character 
of a people, although undoubtedly deriving some elements from 
its ancestry, takes, as does the individual life, additions and 
modifications from the school of events and influences ; that, 
in short, the geometrical accuracy of ethnology is an imperfect 
and sophistical guide to the truth of history. 

Modern events have most largely produced the Yankee of 
our day. Yet in the sniifling Puritan, with hi^ stock of pious 
excuses for every ferocious scheme of selfishness, and in the 
Massachusetts " trader," with his early code of commercial 
politics, which, in fact, he carried into the revolution of 1776, 
we find no slight likeness to the present generation of their 
Northern descendants. It is not overstating the case to say, 
that the New England colonies went into the revolution rather 
resenting the restraints upon their commerce than animated by 
the pure love of liberty. Their commercial casuistry had long 
defied the laws and authority of the mother country. Sir 
William Berkeley, the Governor of Virginia, when remon- 
strating, in 1671, against the Navigation Act cutting ofi" all 
trade with foreign countries, made it the subject of particular 



254: THE LAST YEAE OF THE WAK. 

complaint that, while the Virginians were " most obedient to 
all laws, the New England men break through, and men trade 
to any place that their interest leads them." He had already 
discovered two different rules of public morals in the begin- 
nings of American history. 

It is no wonder that the confederation, despite the plain 
military necessity which demanded it, was an achievement of 
no little difficulty, and a bond of very partial and imperfect 
effect. It was debated for nearly five years. It was not con- 
summated until the 1st of March, 1781. It lasted nominally 
about eight years, but, practically, not more than two. It 
was distinctly founded on the sovereignty of the States ; was 
ratified by the State legislatures, and gave Congress the power 
of determining questions only by the vote of the States. True, 
it was something more than a military alliance. It was in- 
tended to unite the resources of the States, and to establish a 
foundation for public credit for the purposes of the war. It 
was intended for nothing more. In the circular letter of Con- 
gress, urging the reluctant States to accede to the confedera- 
tion, they were urged " to conckide the glorious compact, which, 
by uniting the wealth, strength, and councils of the whole, might 
bid defiance to external violence and internal dissensions, whilst 
it secured the public credit at home and abroad." 

The compact had been ostentatiously styled in its title a 
" perpetual Union," and Mr. John Adams, of Massachusetts, 
had really desired to incorporate into it the features of a con- 
solidated government. These, however, were the fancies of 
ignorance, and the dreams of extravagance. The confedera- 
tion, indeed, even as an association to give a common direction 
to, and, create a common fund for, the war, was very imperfect 
and lamentably loose. It had no power to reach individuals^ 
and to enforce the common will of the States. It could only 
apportion the quota to be paid by each State, but had no way 
of compelling the payment. It could make commercial treaties 
with foreign States, but, unless the legislatures of the States 
chose to adopt such commercial regulations in their ports as 
might be necessary, the treaties might be utterly inoperative. 
Such au anomaly, such a weak pretence of a common govern- 
ment, could scarcely be expected to last beyond the war, of 
which it was the makeshift. At the peace, it naturally went 



APPENDIX. 255 ^ 

to pieces. " Each State," says Madison, " yielding to the voice 
of immediate interest or convenience, withdrew its support 
from the confederation, till the frail and tottering edifice was 
ready to fall npon our heads and crush us beneath its ruins." 
The " perpetual Union" was practically terminated by the 
uninterrupted free will of the States which composed it. 

The treaty of 1783, wliich crowned the success of the Amer- 
ican revolution, contained the only description which had ever 
been made, on the part of Great Britain, of the nature of the 
new power which was recognized in recognizing American 
independence. What was recognized, was the independence 
sevei-ally of the thirteen States formerly colonies. And it is 
especially to be remarked that these States were recognized 
sevei'ally, and not jointly, in the treaty. 

The revolution was thus crowned with success. But it 
is doubtful whether there was any merit in obtaining it 
other than endurance. The American armies were generally 
unsuccessful ; the American troops — however American vanity 
may proclaim the contrary — fought no better than the British 
veterans. George Washington was not a military genius. The 
diplomacy of the revolution was neither a monument of wisdom 
nor of letters.* The result of the war was the triumph of the 
endurance of a people resolved to be free, over the less deter- 
mined wishes and interests of those who desired merely an ad- 
dition of empire. 

The war of the American States added another illustration 
to a curious fact in all history. This fact is, that no system of 
liberty ever yet emanated from the generosity or wisdom of 
human rulers ; it lias invariably been the fruit of rebellion — 
the result of a contest between the natural tendency of power 
to centralize and exaggerate its authority, and the opposition of 
its subjects, naturally intermittent, in its checks on usurpation. 



* It is true that the American States, in their war with Great Britain, made 
connections and some advantageous arrangements in Europe ; but these were 
natural results, rather than skilful achievements. The diplomacy of the revo- 
lution was a botch. In the beginning of the revolution the foreign correspond- 
ence was intrusted to a committee. The confederation included a department 
of foreign affairs ; but the secretary had no power to perform any thing but 
the specific acts authorized by Congress, which, at that time, was at once the 
executive and the legislative power. 



256 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 

"We embrace here the two conditions of history : the tendency 
of all political power, and the disposition of its subjects. So 
true are these of man, everywhere, that they have passed into 
two general declarations, which have the force of maxims. 
The first is, that " tyranny, when possible, is always certain." 
The second is found in the text of the American Declaration of 
Independence: " All experience hath shown that mankind are 
more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right 
themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are ac- 
customed." 



APPENDIX. 257 



III. 



The times of Tliomas Jefferson. — Manners and appearance of the man. — His Democ- 
racy. — Us application to tlie relations of the States and Federal Government. — Ori- 
gin of the Kepublican or Democratic party. — The idea of consolidation. — New 
York, and the New Entrland States. — Early political preaching in New England. — 
The Alien and Sedition laws. — How the latter infringed the rights of the States. — 
The Kentucky Resolutions. — A fact not in the record. — Mr. Jefferson on " nullifi- 
cation." — Why the Kentucky Resolutions were modified. — The Virginia Resolutions. 
— The replies of the New England States, and of New York. — Jefferson's triumph. 
— A new era at Washington. 

It has been fashionable for two generations to entitle Thomas 
Jefferson, of Virginia, the father of the Democratic party of 
America. Unlike most of the party phrases of tradition, this 
is strictly true. 

The name of Jeft'erson fills a large space in American his- 
tory ; it is identified with an important and enraged political 
crisis ; it is connected with much of party controversy ; and 
for more than sixty years his name has been, on the one hand, 
adorned, with titles of popular adulation, and on the other, 
coupled with the very same terms which Hamilton, his contem- 
porary enemy, and the best representative of Federalist ran- 
cor, applied to him — " an atheist in religion, and a fanatic in 
politics." 

Thomas Jefferson was a remarkable man. He was thor- 
oughly a Virginian ; and he was by nature a Democrat. 
Born of a moderate family in Chesterfield County, he carried, 
through all the honors and illustrious passages of his life, the 
plain, unostentatious, and kindly manners of a Virginia farmer. 
His sandy hair, and strong features, and large bones, were 
Virginian. His dress had always the quaintness of a country- 
n)an ; he wore under-waistcoats and woollen tippets ; and hia 
manners, unafi'ected as his dress, invited all classes of persons 
to approach him. 

We have said that Thomas Jefferson was a Democrat by 
nature. His official residence in France, as minister to that 
court from 1784 to 1Y89, is reported to have been the occasion 

17 



258 THR LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

of contracting peculiar views on the subject of popular rights. 
It, no doubt, added something to them ; but he had contracted 
his king-phobia in the Revolution, in his own country, and 
before thei'e was such a thing as a Democrat in France. His 
hatred of monarchy was expressed in such intense words, as 
could only have come from ideas identified with the constitu- 
tion of the mind. There was a savage sincerity in all he ever 
Baid or wrote of monarchies. The people who lived under 
them, he divided into two classes, — " wolves and sheep." 
Among tlie lessons which he recommended to those of his 
countrymen, who were, in 1787, debating the idea of a new 
constitution, were " never to call on foreign powers to settle 
their differences ; to guard against hereditary magistrates ; to 
prevent their citizens from becoming so established in wealth 
and power, as to be thought worthy of alliance, by marriage, 
with the nieces, sisters, etc., of kings ; and, in short, to besiege 
the throne of Heaven with eternal prayers, to extirpate from 
creation that class of human lions, tigers, and mammoths, called 
kings." There is an unpleasant excess in these views. But 
we may certainly pardon something to the rhetorical fervor of 
strong convictions. 

When Jefferson returned to America, the name of Democrat 
was not popular there. His most careful biographer, Dr. 
Kandall says : " In 1786, and for some period later, there 
were few, if any, prominent Americans who avowed them- 
selves in favor of a broadly Democratic system. In the 
Federal Convention of 1787 (which framed our constitution), 
not a man could be found who advocated such systems, or was 
willing to be suspected of, at heart, favoring them. There 
were gentlemen in that Convention who avowed themselves 
monarchists in theory ; but not one could be found who would 
take the name of Democrat ! Jefferson was the first, and for 
a long time the only very prominent American we know of, 
who was willing persistently to avow that Democracy con- 
stituted the essence of his system, or the rule of construction 
which he would apply to the mixed forms of the State and 
Federal Goveinments." 

It is in its application to the relations subsisting between 
the State and Federal authority that we find the technical 
meaning of that broad nomenclature — the Democratic party 



APPENDIX. 259 

of America. The application of the general principle of De- 
mocracy — the doctrine of popular rights — to this relation was 
obvious. Mr. Jefferson was, to the end of his life, persuaded 
that there was a monarchical party, more or less disguised, in 
America. It is probable that he fought nothing more than a 
shadow in this, and mistook a fondness of the Federalists for 
the traditions and fashions of the ante-revolutionary period — a 
depraved appetite for social ceremonies in New York and 
Philadelphia — as a desire for the substance as well as the trap- 
pings of monarchy. 

But Jefferson had a real substance to fight in the consolida- 
tion school of politics, which wa« early established in New 
York, and in the New England States. It is true that the 
propositions of this school bordered on the monarchical idea; 
but it is extravagant to say that they fully implied it. They 
suggested no change in the republican forms of the General 
Government. But the idea of the Federalists was to accumu- 
late power in that Government at the expense of the States ; to 
impair these original political institutions of America ; and to 
strike down, in the States, that principle of local sovereignty 
which had been interposed between the general authority and 
people, and which, in fact, from the daj's of the Saxon Octar- 
chy to those of the American Union, may be taken as consti- 
tuting the most important bulwark of popular liberty. 

The idea of consolidation had obtained early popularity and 
rapid growth in the Northern States. Mr. Jefferson found his 
most powerful enemies in the compact masses of Federalists 
in New England. It was during his party contests with Mr. 
Adams' administration, and his subsequent campaign for the 
presidency, that we may find the development of the peculiar 
spirit of hierocracy in New England — a disposition of the 
clergy to control in secular affairs — and date that era oi polit- 
ical preaching^ which has had so much to do with Yankee 
politics, and the party education of Northern mobs. Mr. 
Jefferson was never pelted from the hustings and ward-rooms 
with viler abuse, than from the pulpits of New England. 
Rev. Cotton Mather Smith, of Shena, declared that he had 
been guilty of " fraud and robbery ;" and with that usual 
decent and Christian weapon of New England — an attack on 
private life — deluged him with vituperations from the pulpit, 



260 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAE. . 

and pronounced stern maranatha on the man. Another New 
England divine made an elaborate parallel between the dis- 
tinguished Virginian and the wicked Rehoboam, printed his 
" sermon," and distributed it through the land. This Puri- 
tanical rancor mingled largely in the party conflicts of Mr. 
Jefferson's time; but probably disturbed him less than any 
other element of enmity. He had a greater contempt for 
religious fanaticism than for any other form of error ; he was 
inclined to jest on it ; he was never disposed to appease attacks 
on his private character ; he was satislied to trust himself to 
the tests of reason, and to do his work faithfully and patiently 
for history. That work was the foundation of the Bepublican 
party, known long after him as the Democratic, or State- 
rights party of America. 

The administration of John Adams was distinguished by 
two important assaults on the liberties of the country — one of 
them involving an obvious infringement of the principle of 
State sovereignty. These were the Alien and the Sedition laws. 
The first, passed Congress on the 22d day of June, 1798, 
authorized the President to deport at pleasure, aliens whom 
he might judge " dangerous to the peace and safety of the 
United States." The second, passed the 14th of July, 1798, 
abridged the freedom of the press, by an odious bill of penalties, 
and assumed to punish, by fine and imprisonment, " false, 
scandalous, and malicious writings" against the Goverimient, 
It did more than aim a blow at civil liberty: it conveyed an 
attack against tlie structure of the Government, and the vital 
principle of the Federal compact. It was inferred, from the 
existence of State laws on the subject, that Congress had a 
similar power of legislation ; that its authority might thus be 
deduced from implication ; violating the cardinal principle of 
the Democratic or Republican school, that the State sovereign- 
ties were only diminished by the powers specifically enume- 
rated, and that the Federal agency had no power whatever to 
intrude upon the reserved ground. It is easily seen that the 
extent of the pretension was to endow Congress with a power 
of legislation in all cases whatsoever, to strip the States of their 
sovereignty, and to despoil them of all the rights they had 
reserved to themselves. 

Against this tremendous pretension, Jefferson raised the 



APPENDIX. 261 

standard of party revolt. The leading republicans in Congress 
formed a plan of action, which was, "to retire from that field, 
and take a stand in the State legislatures" against Federalist 
enterprises on the constitution. The co-operation of Kentucky 
with Yirginia was assured. Mr. Jefferson was consulted, and 
from his pen emanated the famous Kentucky Resolutions, 
which were passed ahnost unanimously by the Legislature of 
that State, in November, 1798, and which have since con- 
stituted the most august text of the principles of American 
Democi-acy, and for two generations have been the exacting 
standard of party authority. 

The first of these resolutions was in the nature of a general 
declaration of principles, while others of the series practically 
applied to the Alien and Sedition laws and ofher excesses of 
the Federalists. It is sufficient to quote it : 

" Resolved, That the several States composing the United States of America, 
are not united on the principle of imlimited submission to their General 
Government ; but that by compact, under the style and title of a constitution 
of the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a General 
Government for special purposes, delegated to that Government certain definite 
powers, reserving, each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own 
self-government ; and, that whensoever the General Government assumes 
undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force ; that 
to this compact each State acceded as a State, and is an integral party ; that 
this Government, created by this compact, was not made the exclusive or 
final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself; since that would 
have made its discretion, and not the constitution, tlie measure of its powers ; 
but, that as in all other cases of compact among parties having no common 
judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions 
as of the mode and measure of redress." 

But there was something beliind this record which is not 
to be omitted from history. Mr. Jefferson, in the original 
draft of the resolutions, as it came from his hand, had proposed 
the remedy for an assumption by Congress of powers not 
delegated to it. He was too logical to state conclusions del- 
icately. He declared the right of nulliJiGation. In the ninth 
of tlie series of resolutions, he wrote: "That in cases of an 
abuse of the delegated powers, the members of the General 
Government being chosen by the people, a change by the 
people would be the constitutional remedy ; but, where powers 
are assumed which have not been delegated, a nullification of 



262 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

the act is the rightful remedy ; that every State has a natural 
right in cases not within the compact {casus non f(£,deris)^ to 
nullify, of their own authority, all assumptions of power by 
others within their limits ; that, without this right, they would 
be under the dominion, absolute and unlimited, of whosoever 
might exercise this right of judgment over them ; that, never- 
theless, this commonwealth, from motives of regard and respect 
for its co-states, has wished to communicate with them on the 
subject." 

It remained for another generation of American people to 
consider the " rightful remedy" of nullification, and for the 
masterly mind of Mr. Calhoun to develop Mr. Jefferson's idea 
expressed above ; to modify it, as Mr. Jefferson himself, in 
another period of his life, did modify it to a call of convention 
of States ; and to draw out of this first crude suggestion of a 
remedy the most finished and conservative plan that was ever 
devised in the politics of America, to exorcise the spirit of 
sectionalism, and to save an imperilled Union. 

But the peril of 1798 was not important enough to force a 
discussion of the remedy wliich Mr. Jefferson had indicated. 
He was satisfied to declare the right of it. It was supposed 
that the repeal of the Alien and Sedition laws might be effected 
without invoking extraordinary remedies ; and that it was 
best to accomplish it without unnecessary ferment, and through 
the forms of polite remonstrance. Mr. Jefferson thought so. 
He wrote to a friend : " For the present, I shall be for resolv- 
ing the Alien and Sedition laws to be against the constitution, 
and merely void, and for addressing the other States to obtain 
similar declarations ; and I would not do any thing at this 
moment which should commit us further, but reserve ourselves 
to shape our future measures, or no measures, by the events 
which may happen." 

It was in a similar conviction, and probably with the con- 
currence of Mr. Jefferson, that the Kentucky Legislature 
nu^dified the eighth resolution, so as to omit any alhision to 
ulterior remedies, simply requiring their representatives to use 
their best endeavors for the repeal in Congress of the obnoxious 
legislation referred to. The governor was requested to transmit 
the resolutions to the other States,*and solicit their concurrence 
in procuring the desired repeal. 



APPENDIX. * 263 

Yirginia followed the action of Kentucky. In December, 
1798, her legislature passed a series of resolutions responsive 
to those of Kentucky. They were drafted by Mr. Madison. 
They referred to the spirit of the Federal Government " to 
enlarge its powers by forced constructions of the constitutional 
charter," and " so to consolidate the States by degrees into 
one sovereignty." They peremptorily declared that they 
viewed " the powers of the Federal Government, as resulting 
from the compact, to which the States are parties, as limited 
by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting 
that compact, as no further valid than they are authorized by 
the grants enumerated in that compact ; and that in case of a 
deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, 
not granted by the said compact, the States, who are parties 
thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose 
for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining 
within their respective limits, the authorities, rights, and 
liberties appertaining to them." 

The resolutions of Virginia and Kentucky were communi- 
cated to the other States for council and co-operation. They 
drew upon them a unanimous bui'st of Federalist denunciation 
from all of the New England States. The replies of these 
States, and that of New York, reveal the extent of the early 
establishment of the consolidation school in the North, and 
discover those principles from which have flowed the more 
modern political principles of the Yankee. 

Each of the New England States, confounding judicial cases 
with political questions, declared that the State legislatures 
had no power to supervise the acts of the General Govern- 
ment (which, it is scarcely necessary to say, parenthetically, 
was to nullify the political influence of the States) ; that the 
construction of such laws as the Alien and Sedition acts was 
exclusively vested in the judicial courts of the United States. 
Yet each of these States went out of the way to afiirm, specu- 
latively, the constitutionality and expediency of these acts. 
Massachusetts declared, that in no circumstances had the State 
legislatures " the right to denounce the administration of that 
government to which the people themselves, by a solemn 
compact, had exclusively committed their national concerns." 
The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantation declared, 



264: THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAK. 

that the resolutions of Yirginia were " very unwarrantable," 
and " hazarded an interruption of the peace of the States by 
civil discord." Connecticut " explicitly disavowed" the 
principles contained in these resolutions. New Hampshire 
thought the State legislatures were not the proper tribunals 
to pass npon the laws of the General Government. Vermont 
"highly disapproved" of the Yirginia resolutions, and thought 
them "unconstitutional in their nature, and dangerous in 
their tendency." New York, then united to New England 
by the tie of Federalism, and long kept in that bad alliance 
by the influence of Hamilton, exceeded even the intolerance 
of her Puritan associates. Her legislature declared that they 
observed with anxiety and regret " the inflammatory and per- 
nicious sentiments, and doctrines which are contained in the 
resolutions of Yirginia and Kentucky." 

On the issues involved in the Yirginia and Kentucky resolu- 
tions. Ml'. Jefierson achieved a decisive triumph, and by his 
election to the presidency in 1800 put the Federalist party 
almost out of existence. After that event, it may be said to 
have degenerated into a mere local faction. Mr. Jefi'erson 
launched the country into a career of Democratic simplicity, 
and real substantial prosperity, that ran through many years. 

He abolished all the stately ceremonials which had grown 
up in Washington's administration. He discontinued the 
levees at the Executive Mansion ; he dispensed with the 
pageant of opening Congress ; he threw the doors of that 
assembly open, for the first time, to news]3aper reporters, and 
broke down, as far as possible, every barrier of ceremony and 
exclusiveness between the Government and the people. The 
simplicity of his inauguration into oflice made people stare. 
An English spectator thus describes his appearance on the 
occasion : " His dress was of plain cloth, and he rode on horse- 
back to the Capitol, without a single guard, or even servant, 
in his train ; dismounted without assistance, and hitched the 
bridle of his horse to the palisades." 

But Mr. Jefl'erson marked the administration of his high 
office with changes much more important than outward tokens 
of Democratic simplicity. He instituted a rule of rigid econ- 
omy in every department of tlie Government. By economy 
alone, he reduced the public debt twelve millions of dollars. 



APPENDIX. 



265 



By the purchase of Louisiana and treaties with the Indians, 
he doubled the area of the United States. The second census 
of the United States presented an increase of exports from 
nineteen to ninety-four millions of dollars. The country was 
on the high and plain road to prosperity. 



THE LAST YEAB OF THE WAR. 



TV. 

The slavery question. — A libel on political nomenclature. — A brief moral de- 
fence of negro servitude in tlie South. — The history of its establishment. — 
Accommodation of the slavery question in the Constitution. — Politiciil history of 
the question. — The Hartford Convention. — Two blows aimed at the South. — Devel- 
opment of the slavery controversy. — Mr. Jefferson's opinion as to slavery in 
the territories. — The Missouri restriction. — The initial point of the wstt o? sections. — 
Mr. Jefferson's alarm. — The trace of disunion. — Real causes of conflict between 
the North and the South. — The slavery question subordinate and yet conspicu- 
ous. — Why so ? — How it was bound up in the conflict between State-rights and 
consolidation. — Northern civilization. — An insolent democracy. — Yankee "gentle- 
men." — Plainness of the South. — A noble type of civilization. — Effect of slavery 
on the political and social character of the South. — Yankee vulgarity. — "Why the 
South was the nursery of American statesmen. 

The peaceful and fortunate career on which Mr. Jefferson's 
administration launched the country was to meet with a 
singular interruption. That interruption was tlie sectional 
agitation which finally broke the bonds of the Union and 
plunged North and South into one of the fiercest wars of 
modern times. Tlie occasion of that conflict was what the Yan- 
kees called — by one of their convenient libels in political no- 
menclature — slavery f but what was in fact nothing more than 
a system of negro servitude in'the South; well guarded bylaws, 
which protected the negro laborer in the rights of humanity ; 
moderated by Christian sentiments which provided for his 
welfare ; and, altogether, one of the mildest and most benefi- 
cent systems of servitude in the world. 

It is not our purpose here to enter upon a moral defence of 
slavery in the South (using, as we would remind the reader, 
that opprobrious term, wherever it occurs in these pages, 
under a constant protest, and simply because it has become 
the familiar word in the party controversies of America to 
describe the peculiar institution of labor in the South). Our 
object in these pages is simply with the political complications 
of slavery. But as a problem in morals there are but two 
principles which decide it ; and these we may briefly turn our 



• . APPENDIX. 267 

pen to announce, candidly believing them to be the summary 
of the entire ethics of negro servitude in the South : 

1. The white being the superior race, and the black the in- 
ferior, subordination, with or without law, must be the status 
of the African in the mixed society of whites and blacks. 

2. It thus becomes the interest of both races, especially of 
the inferior race, that this status should be fixed and pro- 
tected by law ; and it was simply the declaration and defini- 
tion of this principle that went by the name of negro slavery 
in the South. 

Slavery (without that moderation of legislative checks and 
Christian sentiments which were the constant employment of 
the South) had been planted in America by the direct and 
persistent action of the British government. It was the com- 
mon law of the thirteen colonies before their separation from 
England. The mother country established negro slavery in 
the colonies. It maintained and protected the institution. It 
originated and carried on the slave trade. It forbade the col- 
onies permission either to emancipate or export their slaves. 
It prohibited them from inaugurating any legislation in dimi- 
nution or discouragement of the institution. Even after the 
Continental Congress had been assembled, and the battle of 
Lexington had been fought, the earl of Dartmouth, British 
Secretary of State, in answer to a remonstrance from the agent 
of the colonies on the subject of the slave trade, replied : " We 
cannot allow the colonies to check or discourage in any degree 
a trafiic so beneficial to the nation.'' 

In the constitution of the United States, the slavery question 
had been singularly accommodated. Two clauses covered it. 
The first guaranteed to the South its property — it provided for 
the return of slaves recognized as the property of their South- 
ern masters. Another clause, in the interest of the North, 
prevented a disturbance of the representative system by an 
importation of slaves, and provided that the South should not 
increase her negro population (five of which in the basis of 
representation were made equal to three white men) by im- 
portation after the lapse of twenty years. 

The political history of the slavery question in the early 
periods of the American Union is scarcely more than an 
enumeration of dates or of measures which were taken as 



268 THE LAST YKAR OF THE WAR. 

matters of course. The action of the first Congress, in relation 
to slavery in the territories, was simply to acquiesce in a 
government for the Northwest territory, based upon a jpre- 
existing anti-slavery ordinance — the ordinance of 1781-87. 
The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 was passed without opposition 
and without a division in the Senate ; and in the House, by a 
vote of forty-eight to seven. The slave trade was declared 
piracy. Petitions upon the slavery question were at iirst re- 
ferred to a committee ; and afterwards were rejected, and in 
one instance returned to the petitioner. Louisiana and Florida, 
both slaveholding countries, were added to our territories 
without agitation in Congress. Kentucky, Tennessee, Missis- 
sippi, and Alabama were admitted into the Union, bringing 
the institution of slavery with them, without a murmur of 
opposition. 

It is to be remarked, however, that that jealousy of South- 
ern domination which was the characteristic and controlling: 
element of the Northern mind, and which afterwards became 
singularly associated with the slavery discussion, may be 
dated with the acquisition of Louisiana. The famous Hartford 
Convention, held in 1814, aimed two remarkable blows at the 
power of the South. It proposed to strike down the slave rep- 
resentation in Congress, and to have the representation con- 
formed to the number of free persons in the Union ; and as a 
further restriction upon the power of the South — the extension 
of our territory being then in that direction — it proposed an 
amendment to the constitution, to the eifect that no new 
States should be admitted into the Union without the concur- 
rence of two-thirds of both Houses of Congress. 

But the shivery question was as yet only incidental to this 
sectional rivalry, and was scarcely yet developed into a dis- 
tinct and independent controversy. There was some general 
discussion as to the polic}' of the extension of slaveiy into the 
new territories ; and some political union, without, liowever, 
any distinct lines of party organization, had already been 
occasioned in the North by a proposition to extend the ordi- 
nance of 1787 west of the Mississippi River. It is a remarkable 
circumstance, in connection Mnth these early discussions of 
the " Free-Soil " school, that Mr. Jefferson, notwithstanding his 
Connection with the ordinance of 1787, was in favor of the free 



APPENDIX. 269 

and unlimited extension of slavery over the new soil acquired 
by the United States. And he maintained this view on a 
very singular and ingenious ground : it was that " the dif- 
fusion of the slaves over a greater surface would make them 
individually happier, and proportionably facilitate the accom- 
plishment of their emancipation, by dividing the burden on a 
greater number of coadjutors." 

It may be said generally — notwithstanding the episode of 
the Hartford Convention — which fell into early disrepute — 
that there was nothing in the precedents of the Government to 
betoken that wild and violent controversy nursed in the selfish 
mind of the North, which, in 1820, was to break througli the 
bonds of secret jealousy and array the country into two 
sectional parties struggling for supremacy, on opposite con- 
victions, or perhaps on opposite pretences, with regard to the 
slavery question. 

The Missouri legislation — by which the institution of slavery 
was bounded by a line of latitude — naturally divided the 
United States into geographical parties, and tore the country 
in twain. It created for the first time a distinct political 
North and a distinct political South. It is to be taken as the 
proper initial point of that war of sections which raged in 
America for forty years, and at last culminated in an appeal 
to arms. The discussion of the Missouri matter awoke the 
anti-slavery sentiment of the country that had for some years 
past been almost completely dormant. It was the occasion 
of a call of a convention of abolitionists at Philadelphia. It 
tired the passions of the populace, and to the seiious statesmen 
of the country gave unbounded alarm. " From the battle of 
Bunker's Hill to the treaty of Paris we never had so ominous 
a question," said Mr. Jefi'erson. To a friend he wrote : " This 
momentous question, like a fire-bell in the night, awakened 
and filled me with terror." After the passage of what was 
called " a compromise " in Congress, he wrote : " The question 
sleeps for the present, but is not dead." " A geographical 
line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political, 
once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men will 
not be obliterated ; and every new irritation will make it 
deeper and deeper." The Sage of Monticello spoke propheti- 



270 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 

cally, and in one of his letters put on record this remarkable 
declaration : 

" I regret that I ara now to die in the belief that the useless 
sacrifice of themselves, by the generation of 1776, to acquire 
self-government and happiness to their country, is to be thrown 
away by the unwise and unworthy passions of their sons ; and 
that my only consolation is to be, I live not to weep over it. 
If they would but dispassionately weigh the blessings they 
will throw away, against an abstract principle more likely to 
be afiected by union than by scission, they would pause before 
they would perpetrate this act of suicide on themselves, and of 
treason against the hopes of the world." 

Mr. Jefferson was right in designating the Missouri Re- 
striction as the preliminary trace of disunion. Thereafter, the 
slavery question was developed as a well-defined controversy ; 
and for forty years the most ingenious attempts to appease it, 
and to erase the geographical line, which was drawn in 1820, 
were worse than ineffectual. 

But it is to be remarked that the true causes of sectional 
animosity between the North and the South were beyond the 
slavei'y question, although unavoidably and indissolubly con- 
nected with it. If we are to analyze that animosity, we shall 
discover that its deep-lying causes were certain radical an- 
tipathies, which discovered slavery as the most prominent 
ground of distinction between the two sections, and seized 
upon it as the readiest point of controversy. We must not 
fall into the common error of taking occasions for original 
agents, and confounding as one a number of causes, attached 
to each other, or even grown out of each other, and yet logi- 
cally distinct. The war between North and South was es- 
sentially a war between two great political schools, and 
what is more, between two distinct civilizations. Yet in both 
regards, the slavery question was bound up in the conflict, be- 
ing, in the first place, an inevitable issue between the States- 
rights and consolidation schools; and, in the second place, 
itself being the most prominent cause of the distinction between 
the civilizations, or social autonomies of North and South. 

It is thus that the slavery question, although subordinate — 
although, so to speak, a smaller question than those with 
which it was associated — pervaded all of American politics, 



APPENDIX. 271 

and played the conspicuous part in the dissolution of the 
Union. The two great political tendencies in America — that 
of consolidation and that of State-rights — naturally joined 
issue on slavery ; for the first school, recognizing the authority 
at Washington as a national one, could easily presume it 
responsible for what was denounced as " the plague-spot of 
the country," and deplored as a tarnish of the American 
name. Again, as the North envied the peculiar intellectual 
civilization of the South, its higher sentimentalism, and its 
superior refinements of scholarship and manners, it would 
naturally find the leading cause of these things in the peculiar 
institution of slavery, and concentrate upon it all the unscru- 
pulous rage of jealousy, and that singularly bitter hate, which 
is inseparable from a sense of inferiority. 

Free labor founded in the North a material civilization, a 
pestilent system of public schools, and that insolent democ- 
racy which went by the phrase, " D — n you, I am as good as 
you." That, and "commercial" politics, made the North pros- 
perous ; a showy, glittering mass of all the national elements 
of civilization, by the side of the apparently scanty, but re- 
fined. South. Northern men were apt to sneer at the uncul- 
tivated asj^ects of the South ; to point to the slight nets of 
internal improvements that stretched over tracts of wild 
timber and swamps ; to laugh at the plain architecture in the 
cities of the South ; and to talk, with great self-complacency, 
of " tlie want of enterprise" in the slaveholding States. Yet 
after all, the Yankee trader had a sneaking, irrepressible con- 
sciousness that the Southern planter, in his homespun garb, 
w^as infinitely his superior as a gentleman ; that he could not 
compete with him in courage, in the sentiment of honor, in 
the refinements of manners, or in any of the solid and merito- 
rious accomplishments of manhood. The sleek business men 
of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia might be very im- 
pressive in their exteriors, but they never had any manners; 
they were not even accustomed to the words, "Sir" and "gen- 
tleman," in their conversation ; they might talk a learned 
jargon about stocks and markets, but beyond that, in matters 
of history and literature, many of these well-dressed men were 
as ignorant as the draymen at their door. 

Despite the plainness of the South, and the absence there of 



272 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

the shows and gauds of material prosperity, and the insepar- 
able companion of such prosperity in a moneyed aristocracy, 
there was recognizable, in this slaveholding country, a noble 
and singularly pure type of civilization. Slavery introduced 
elements of order and conservatism in the society of the 
South ; and yet, after all, there was no truer democracy in the 
world than there : the lower white classes recognizing, it is 
true, certain distinctions in social intercourse; but outside of 
these, having a manly sense of equality, and claiming, from 
the more prosperous orders of societj', a consideration and 
measure of respect that the poor man in the North, where 
society was made up of browbeating on the one hand, and an 
insolent assertion of equality on the other, in vain contended 
for. Slavery trained the white race of the South in habits of 
command ; and though, sometimes, these may have degenerated 
into cruelty and insolence, yet they were generally the occasions 
of the revival of the spirit of chivalry in the nineteenth 
century ; of the growth of many noble and generous virtues ; 
and of a knightly polish of manners, that the shopkeeping 
aristocracy of the North, being unable to emulate, was satis- 
fied to ape in its hotels and caravansaries. Slavery relieved 
the better classes in the South from many of the demands of 
physical and manual labor; but although in some instances 
idle or dissolute lives may have been the consequence of this, 
yet it afforded opportunity for extraordinary intellectual cul- 
ture in the South, elevated the standards of scholarship and 
mental cultivation there, and furnishes some explanation of 
the extraordinary phenomenon in American history, that the 
statesmanship of the country was peculiarly, and almost ex- 
clusively, the production of the slaveholding States. 

The vulgar North envied the South, even down to the small 
hands and feet of its people. For the better civilization and 
higher refinement of slaveholders, the North retaliated that 
the South was dull and unenterprising, and had to import all 
of its luxuries, and many of its comforts from Yankee shops. 
This was true ; but it proved nothing, or it might prove more 
than the Yankee argument might desire, for with Northern 
luxuries there came into the South Northern vices. It was said, 
with a coarse wit, but with not a little meaning, that there were 
" three things" for which the South would always be depend- 



APPENDIX. 273 

ent upon the ISTortli, and never could produce for herself; they 
were " ice, play-actors, and prostitutes," There is a certain 
exaggeration in every hon mot j but the witticism is a good 
one, as it gives an indication of that coarse, vulgar measure of 
superiority which the North applied to itself to compensate 
for its defects in refinement, and in the nobler attributes of 
national life by the side of the South. 

With reference to the singular point of contrast between 
the North and' the South in the exhibitions of statesmanship 
and political scholarship, we discover the most remarkable 
feature of American history. Slavery appears, indeed, to 
have been the school of American statesmanship, for it is from 
its domains there came by far the most considerable contribu- 
tion to the political literature of the country. The smallness 
of Yankee contribution in this respect has been a subject of 
remark by every impartial historian of America ; and there 
are but few candid persons who will deny that the quality of 
Yankee statesmanship was always intensely sophomorical. 
It may have been that slavery afforded to the statesmen of 
the South certain fields of observation, and applied certain 
influences of conservatism that qualified them for their pecu- 
liar studies ; but it is unquestionably true, that to them we 
must look for the monuments of political literature in Amer- 
ica. It has been acutely remarked by a Yankee writer, in the 
anonymous pages of a magazine, that the public men of the 
North were generally actuated by an ambition to make a 
show on what they imagined the theatre of national life ; 
that they neglected the obscure theatres, but noble schools, of 
State politics ; and that to this shallow, ostentatious ambition 
is to be attributed much of the Yankee distaste for the 
severity and exclusiveness of the States-rights school. 



18 



274- THE LAST YEAE OF THE WAR. 



Y. 

Contrast between the North and South in material progress.— The times of Andrew- 
Jackson. — The tariff controversy. — Calhoun and Webster as representative men. 
— The latter a sophomore in American politics. — Mr. Webster's private correspon- 
dence and poetry. — His superficial accomplishments. — " Nullification," another 
libel of political nomenclature. — A true explanation and analysis of Mr. Calhoun's 
scheme to save and perpetuate the CTnion. — Jefferson Davis' defence of Calhoun. 
New England's regard for the Union. — The veneration of the Union peculiarly a 
Southern sentiment. — Mr. Calhoun's Fort Hill speech. — The ignorance or hypoc- 
risy of Webster and his party. — How the South was driven to " disunion." 

The inequality between the I^ortli and tlie South, with 
respect to material progress, was perhaps never more marked 
than at the time of the memorable administration of Andrew 
Jackson. Referring to this period, a Northern biographer of 
President Jackson writes in the following style of Yankee 
conceit : 

" The North was rushing on like a Western high-pressure 
steamboat, with resin in the furnace and a man on the safety- 
valve. All through "Western New York, Ohio, Indiana, and 
Illinois, the primeval wilderness was vanishing like a mist, 
and towns were springing into existence with a rapidity that 
rendered necessary a new map every month, and spoiled the 
gazetteers as fast as they were printed. The City of New York 
began already to feel itself the London of the New World, and 
to calculate how many years must elapse before it would be 
the London of the World. 

" The South, meanwhile, was depressed and anxious. Cotton 
was down ; tobacco was down ; corn, wheat, and pork were 
down. For several years the chief products of the South had 
either been inclining downward, or else had risen in price too 
slowly to make up for the (alleged) increased price of the com- 
modities which the South was compelled to buy. Few new 
towns changed the Southern map. Charleston languished, or 
*Beeraed to languish — certainly did not keep pace with New 



APPENDIX. 2Y5 

Tork, Boston, and Philadelphia. N"o Cincinnati of the So^^th 
became the world's talk by the startling rapidity of its growth. 
'No Southern river exhibited at every bend and coyne of van- 
tage a rising village. No Southern mind, distracted with the 
impossibility of devising suitable names fdr a thousand new 
places per annum, fell back in despair upon the map of the Old 
World, and selected at random any convenient name that pre- 
sented itself, bestowing upon clusters of log huts such titles as 
Utica, Rome, Palermo, Naples, Russia, Egypt, Madrid, Paris, 
Elba, and Berlin. No Southern commissioner, compelled to 
find names for a hundred streets at once, had seized upon the 
letters of the alphabet and the figures of arithmetic, and called 
the avenues A, B, C, and D, and instead of naming his cross 
streets, numbered them." 

The Yankee writer attributes this inequality of conditions to 
■ the influence of negro slavery in the South. But it has another 
interpretation. The tariff measures, which were closely asso- 
ciated with the slavery question — being the commercial appli- 
cation of that doctrine of the power of numerical majorities, 
taught in the consolidation schools, which had attained its 
moral and sentimental development in the war upon slavery — 
had been used by the North as the stepping-stones to pros- 
perity, and the most profitable expedients of sectional aggran- 
dizement. In 1831 the public debt of the United States was 
near extinction ; and it was calculated that, jvith the tariff 
then in force, there would be, in three j^ears thereafter, a sur- 
plus in the treasury. The South demanded the repeal of a 
measure which was no longer necessary for the purposes of 
public revenue ; which had been used to promote the manu- 
facturing and commercial interests of the North ; and which, 
taxing her for the benefit of the Yankees, had restricted and 
embarrassed her resources, and put upon her the badge of 
inferiority. 

The tariff controversy of 1831-2 introduced on the political 
stage two of the most remarkable men in America, who more 
than any others, are to be regarded as the representative men 
of the North and the South, and the clear-cut anti-types of 
consolidation and State-rights. They were John C. Calhoun, 
of South Carolina, and Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts. The 
issue between these men was the broadest and most compre- 



276 THE LAST YEAE OF THE WAE. 

hensive ever made in the political history of the country, in- 
volving not only the slavery and tariff questions, but going to 
the very roots of the constitution, and embracing the whole 
American system of politics. 

Mr. Calhoun was a splendid type of the accomplished scholar 
of the South, and a consummate champion of State-rights. 
He was the opposite of the shallow and rhetorical Massa- 
chusetts man in every respect. He was an ascetic in his pri- 
vate habits and tastes ; he was a devotee of " the midnight 
lamp ;" he was the most exact logician that ever figured in 
political life ; he had no ad cajptandutn arguments for the 
vulgar ; his phrases were almost syllogisms, and his language 
as clear-cut as the diamond. 

If Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts, can be described by a 
phrase, he may be briefly designated as a. representative of the 
smattering of New England education and the rhapsody of 
" spread-eagleism." This may offend the taste of his wor- 
shippers ; but of that we are careless, as long as we do not 
offend the truth of history. To the end of his days, Mr. Web- 
ster was nothing more than a ready-spoken sophomore in 
politics — a man wlio adorned common-places with silken ora- 
tions—who had an unrivalled " Fourth-of-July" style of public 
speaking — but who never invented or discovered any thing in 
politics, and who defended his doctrines much more with frothy 
sentiments than with sound arguments. There is nothing so 
injurious to posthumous reputation as the publication of " pri- 
vate correspondence," where the great man is discovered in 
undress ; and the officious friends of Mr. Webster, who pub- 
lished two octavo volumes of his letters, after his death, have 
exhibited the intellectual hero of Massachusetts as a vapid, 
sophomorical, shallow statesman, who could not afford to wear 
his literary court-dress — a tinsel one at that — but on state 
occasions. Mr. Webster had the weakness of putting scraps of 
law Latin in his correspondence; and it is doubtful whether his 
attainments in the dead languages extended beyond this cheap 
collection from his professional glossary. In his early days he 
affected a taste for poetry, and wrote tawdry and conceited 
verses to his friends. In one instance — as a specimen of his 
muse, some years after his admission to the bar — we are given 
this bit of the Yankee pastoral : 



APPENDIX. 277 

" Nor health alone — be four more blessings thine ! — 
■ Cash, and the Fair One, Friendship, and the Nine." 

But it is scarcely just to estimate Mr. Webster's mind from 
his experiments in Latin or in verse, or from any other of his 
notoriously weak efforts at scholarship. In his political life — 
his so-called " statesmanship" — he was an excellent rej^resent- 
ative of the shallowness and fluency of the New England 
mind. He had the Yankee tact of showing his little learning 
to the greatest advantage. In vulgar estimation, he could 
overwhelm the most logical opponent by the beauty of a 
peroration. He had an abundance of catch-phrases and bril- 
liant illustrations ; his manner was pompous, slow, and sage ; 
his figure, in social life, was that of a good liver — a well-fed 
and well-drunken Sir Oracle. In short, he was a man who 
might easily be imposed upon the vulgar as a proficient in 
eloquence and a pundit in politics. A mind like Mr. "Web- 
ster's readily seized upon the crude plausibilities of the con- 
solidation school of politics, and was admirably suited to 
employ, to the best advantage, its superficial though captious 
arguments. 

In connection with the tarifi" dispute, Mr. Calhoun devel- 
oped his so-called scheme of " Nullification." This masterly 
scheme of politics was misrepresented by a Yankee word, so 
adept were the Northern people in conveying libels in the 
party nomenclature they imposed upon the world. Mr. Cal- 
houn's proposition was in no sense nullifiGation. Strange as it 
may sound to those who have got American history from the 
narrow and sophistical pages of Yankee books, it was emphati- 
cally a Union- sa/uing riieasure ', devised in deference to the 
Union sentiment of the country ; and better calculated, in 
reality, to maintain the bonds of confederation between the 
States than any thing ever planned or suggested by the 
American mind. 

A loose impression has gained in the world, that our State 
institutions were schools of provincialism; that they were a 
partial and incomplete expression of the nationality of 
America ; and that their logical tendency was to the disrup- 
tion of the confederate bond. Mr. Calhoun was not the first 
to conceive, although more than any other he expressed logi- 
cally and clearly, that the rights of the States were the only 



278 THE LAST YKAK OF THE WAK. 

solid foundation of the Union ; and that, so far from being an- 
tagonistic to it, they constituted its security, realized its per- 
fection, and gave to it all the moral beauty with which it 
appealed to the affections of the people. It was in this sense 
that the great South Carolina statesman, so frequently calum- 
niated as " nullifier," agitator, etc., was indeed the real and 
devoted friend of the American Union. He maintained the 
rights of the States — the sacred distribution of powers between 
them and the General Government — as the life of the Union, 
and its bond of attachment in the hearts of the people. And 
in this he was right. The State institutions of America, 
properly regarded, were not discordant ; nor were they unfor- 
tunate elements in our political life. They gave certain occa- 
sions to the divisions of industry ; they were instruments of 
material prosperity ; they were schools of pride and emula- 
tion ; above all, they were the true guardians of the Union, 
keeping it from degenerating into that vile and short-lived 
government in which power is consolidated in a mere numeri- 
cal majority. 

Mr. Calhoun's so-called doctrine of Nullification is one of 
the highest proofs ever given by any American statesman of 
attachment fo the Union. The assertion is not made for para- 
doxical effect. It is clear enough in history, read in the severe 
type of facts, without the falsehoods and epithets of that Yan- 
kee literature which has so long defamed us, distorted our 
public men, and misrepresented us, even to ourselves. 

The so-called and miscalled doctrine of Nullification marked 
one of the most critical periods in the controversies of America, 
and constitutes one of the most curious studies for its philoso- 
phic historian. Mr. Calhoun was unwilling to offend the 
popular idolatry of the Union ; he sought a remedy for exist- 
ing evils short of disunion, and the consequence was what was 
called, by an ingenious slander, or a contemptible stupidity, 
Nullification. His doctrine was, in fact, an accommodation 
of two sentiments : that of Yankee injustice, and that of rever- 
ence of the Union. He proposed to save the Union by the 
simple and august means of an appeal to the sovereign States 
that composed it. He proposed that should the General Gov- 
ernment and a State come into conflict, the power should be 
invoked that called the General Government into existence, 



APPENDIX. 279 

and gave it all of its authority. " In such a case," said Mr. Cal- 
houn, " the States themselves may be appealed to, three-fourths 
of which, in fact, form a power whose decrees are the constitu- 
tion itself, and whose voice can silence all discontent. The 
utmost extent, then, of the power is, that a State acting in its 
sovereign capacity, as one of the parties to the constitutional 
compact, may compel the Government created by that com- 
pact to submit a question touching its infraction to the parties 
who created it." He proposed a peculiar, conservative, and 
noble tribunal for tlie controversies that agitated the country 
and threatened the Union. He was not willing that vital con- 
troversies between the sovereign States and the General Gov- 
ernment should be submitted to the Supreme Court, which 
properly excluded political questions, and comprehended those 
only where there were parties amenable to the process of the 
court. This was the length and breadth of Nullification. It 
was intended to reconcile impatience of Yankee injustice, and 
that sentimental attachment to the Union which colors so much 
of American politics ; it resisted the suggestion of revolution ; 
it clung to the idolatry of the Union, and marked that passage 
in American history in which there was a combat between 
reason' and that idolatry, and in which that idolatry made a 
marked conquest. 

The doctrine, then, of Mr. Calhoun was tliis : he proposed 
only to constitute a conservative and constitutional barrier to 
Yankee aggression ; and, so far from destroying the Union, 
proposed to erect over it the permanent and august guard or 
a tribunal of those sovereign powers which had created it. It 
was this splendid, but hopeless vision of the South Carolina 
statesmen, which the North slandered with the catch-word of 
Nullification ; which Northern orators made the text of indig- 
nation ; on which Mr. Webster piped his schoolboy rhetoric ; 
and on which the more modern schools of New England have 
exhausted the lettered resources of their learned blacksmiths 
and senatorial shoemakers. 

The suggestion of the real safety of the Union, first made by 
Jeflferson,* and reproduced by Calhoun, the North slandered 

* At a late period of his life Mr. Jefferson wrote : " With respect to our 
State and Federal governments, I do not think their relations are correctly 



280 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 

as nullification, insulted as heresy, and branded as treason. 
" It was," said Jefferson Davis, on occasion of his taking leave 
of the United States Senate in 1861, " because of his deep- 
seated attachment to the Union, his determination to find some 
remedy for existing ills, short of a severance of the ties which 
bound South Carolina to the other States, that Mr. Calhoun 
advocated the doctrine of Nullification, which he proclaimed 
to be peaceful, to be within the limits of State power ; not to 
disturb the Union, but only to be the means of bringing the 
agent before the tribunal of the States for their judgment." 
Mr. Davis, on that occasion, publicly confessed that the South 
was about to resort to another class of remedies than that pro- 
posed by the great South Carolinian — Skcession — and, vindi- 
cating the name of Calhoun, suggested that, as the door had 
been closed to his great and efiicient proposition to save the 
Union, there was no longer any hope for the South but in vio- 
lent measures. 

Daniel Webster had no complicated or nice theory about the 
American Union. In his eyes, the Government at Washington 
was nothing more than a central organization of numbers, with 
scarcely any feature of originality to distinguish it from other 
rude democracies of the world. " It had," he said, " created 
direct relations between itself and individuals ;" and " no State 
authority had power to dissolve these relations." He scouted the 
whole doctrine of State-rights. He spoke as the mouth-piece 
of manufacturing interests in the North ; apostrophized " the 
glorious Union;" declared its benefits and gains, and easily led 
the whole North to worship the Union, in the base spirit of 
commercial idolatry, as a pretty machinery to secure tariffs 
and bounties, and to aggrandize a section. 

Mr. Calhoun and his school worshipped the American 
Union in a very different sense from the Yankee material- 



understood by foreigners. They suppose the former subordinate to the latter. 
This is not the case. They are co-ordinate departments of one simple and in- 
tegral whole. But, you may ask, if the two departments should claim each 
the same subject of power, where is the umpire to decide between them ? In 
cases of little urgency or importance, the prudence of both parties will keep 
them aloof from the questionable ground ; but, if it can neither be avoided nor 
compromised, a convention of the States must be called to ascribe the doubtful 
power to that department which they may think best." 



APPENDIX, 281 

ists. The 'moral veneration of the Union was peculiarlj a 
sentiment of the South. The political ideas of the North, as 
represented by Mr. Webster and his school, excluded that of 
any peculiar moral character about the Union ; the doctrine 
of State-rights was rejected by them for the prevalent notion 
that America was a single democracy ; thus, the Union to 
them was nothing more than a geographical name, entitled to 
no peculiar claims upon the affections of the people. It was 
diiferent with the South, The doctrine of State-rights gave 
to the Union its moral dignity ; this doctrine was the only 
really possible source of sentimental attachment to the Union ; 
and this doctrine was the received opinion of the Southern 
people, and .the most marked peculiarity of their politics. 
The South venerated the Union, because she discovered in 
it a sublime moral principle ; because she regarded it as a 
peculiar association, in which sovereign States were held by 
high considerations of good faith ; by the exchanges of equity 
and comity ; by the noble attractions of social order ; by the 
enthused sympathies of a common destiny of power, honor, 
and renown. 

In his famous Fort Hill speech, delivered in 1831, Mr. Cal- 
houn said : 

" I yield to none, I trust, in a deep and sincere attachment 
to our political institutions and the Union of these States. I 
never breathed an opposite sentiment ; but, on the contrary, I 
have ever considered them the great instruments of preserving 
our liberty, and promoting the happiness of ourselves and of 
our posterity ; and next to these I have ever held them most 
dear. Nearly half of my life has passed in the service of the 
Union, and whatever public reputation I have acquired is 
indissolubly identified with it. With these strong feelings of 
attachment, I have examined with the utmost care the bearing 
of the doctrine in question ; and so far from anarchical or 
revolutionary, I solemnly believe it to be the only solid foun- 
dation of our system, and of the Union itself; and that the 
opposite doctrine, which denies to the States the right of pro- 
tecting their reserved powers, and which would vest in the 
General Government (it matters not through what department) 
the right of determining exclusively and finally the powers 
delegated to it, is incompatible with the sovereignity of the 



282 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAK. 

States and of the Constitution itself, considered as the basis 
of a Federal Union. * * * Xo realize the perfection of 
this Union, we must view the General Government and the 
States as a whole, each in its proper sphere sovereign and 
independent; each perfectly adapted to their respective 
objects; the States acting separately, representing and pro- 
tecting the local and peculiar interests; acting jointly, through 
the General Government, with the weight respectively assigned 
to each by the constitution, rejDresenting and protecting the 
interests of the whole, and thus perfecting, by an admirable 
but simple arrangement," the great princii^le of representation 
and responsibility, without which no government can be free 
or just. To preserve this sacred distribution as originally 
settled, by coercing each to move in its prescribed orb, is the 
great and difficult problem, on the solution of which the dura- 
tion of our constitution, of our Union, and in all j)robability, 
our liberty depends. * * * I must think the fear of weak- 
ening the Government too much in this case to be in a great 
measure unfounded, or at least, that the danger is much less 
from that than the opposite side. I do not deny that a power 
of so high a nature," [that of demanding the judgment of a 
convention of States on questions disputed with the General 
Government,] "may be abused by a State; but when I reflect 
that the States unanimously called the General Government 
into existence, with all of its powers, which they freely surren- 
dered on their part, under the conviction that their common 
peace, safety, and prosperity required it ; that they are bound 
together by a common origin, and the recollection of common 
suffering and common triumph in the great and splendid 
achievement of their independence ; and the strongest feel- 
ings of our nature, and among the love of national power and 
distinction, are on the side of the Union ; it does seem to me 
that the fear which would strip the States of their sovereignty, 
and degrade them, in fact, to mere dependent corporations, 
lest they should abuse a right indispensable to the peaceable 
protection of those interests, which they reserved under their 
own peculiar guardianship, when they created the General 
Government, is unnatural and unreasonable." 

Such were the just views and noble sentiments of the man 
whom Webster and his party hounded as a traitor, and who 



THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 283 

has gone down to history in Yankee books in the utterly false 
character of a Disunionist. 

The failure of Mr. Calhoun's scheme to bind up the rights 
of the States with the interests and glory of the Union, was to 
the consolidation school a new and decisive era of power. 
State-rights fell into a loose disrepute from which they never 
recovered ; the sectional controversy between ISTorth. and South 
went on with increased force ; and influences were combining 
to force the South at last to abandon all conservative expe- 
dients and to accept the conclusion of Disunion. That conclu- 
sion remained as the only possible protection against that 
Northern party which founded the school of consolidation 
only to use the Government at "Washington as the organ of 
numerical majorities and the engine of sectional oppressipn. 



284 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 



YI. 



A Fourth of July sentiment in 1851. — Slavery not the Cause of Disunion. — The war 
of 1861. — What it has decided. — The incense of weak minds to the Yankee. — 
Last sentiment of President Davis. 

On the Fourth of July, 1851, the foundation was laid for an 
addition to the Capitol at Washington. Under the corner- 
stone of the addition, Daniel Webster deposited a paper, in 
his own handwriting, containing the following sentence: "If 
therefore, it shall be hereafter the will of God that this struc- 
ture shall fall from its base, that its foundations be upturned, 
and the deposit beneath this stone brought to the eyes of men, 
be it then known that on this day the Union of the United 
States of America stands, firm — that their constitution still 
exists unimpaired, and with all its original usefulness and 
glory, growing every day stronger and stronger in the affec- 
tions of the great body of the American people, and attracting 
more and more the admiration of the world." 

But ten years after this glowing tribute to the permanency 
of American institutions, the Union was rent in twain, and the 
States which composed it were ranged in one of the most im- 
mense and violent wars of modern times. On the Fourth of 
July, 1861, a remnant of Congress met at Washington, to raise 
armies and means for a war upon the Southern States, which 
having realized the constitution as a farce, and the Union as 
the penalty of association of the oppressed with the oppressors, 
were prepared to take their political destinies in their own 
hands. 

The disruption of the Union, in 1861, was by no means the 
direct or the logical consequence of the slavery discussion. 
The dispute on that subject had at last narrowed down to a 
solitary point — whether it was competent for the Congress of 
the United States, directly or indirectly, to exclude slavery 
from the territories of the Union ; and to this proposition the 
Supreme Court of the United States had given a negative 
answer. 



APPENDIX. 286 

The terrible war which ensued on Disunion must be taken 
as the result of a profound and long-continued conflict between 
the political and social systems of North and South, with 
which slavery had a conspicuous connection, but was not in- 
deed an independent controversy; a conflict on which was 
ranged on one side the party that professed the doctrines of 
consolidation and numerical majorities; that represented the 
material civilization of America; that had the commerce and 
the manufactures, the ships, the workshops, the war-material 
of the country — on the other side, the party that maintained 
the doctrines of State-rights, studied government as a system 
of checks and balances, and cultivated the highest schools of 
statesmanship in America ; that represented a civilization 
scanty in shows and luxuries, but infinitely superior in the 
moral and sentimental elements; that devoted itself to agricul- 
ture, and had nothing but its fields and brave men to oppose 
to a people that whitened every sea with their commerce, and 
by the power of their wealth and under the license of " legiti- 
macy," put the wliole world under tribute for troops and 
munitions. 

It is said that in this war the material civilization of the 
North has conquered; that the principle of consolidation is 
supremely triumphant, and that hereafter, under the captiva- 
ting title of an Imperial Republic, it is to found, without dis- 
pute, a new and permanent order of things in America. 

The latter part of the proposition we dispute. The principle 
of State-rights, which for three generations has been harbored 
in the American mind, cannot be destroyed by an act of war. 
The just opinions of men are immortal; suppressed or terrified 
at times, they reassert themselves on opportunity ; punished 
in one instance, although they may never resort again to the 
fatal experiment, they discover new resources of contest, and 
find new modes of expression and activity. 

Since the close of the war, a newspaper published by Yir- 
ginians in Virginia has thus attempted to state the issues it 
decided : 

" We accept the verdict ; we renounce our theory of the 
Federal compact ; we abandon our ideas of State sovereignty ; 
we abjure our faith in the right of secession. Henceforth, in 
our conception, the Federal Government is supreme." 



286 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAK. 

The declaration is gratuitous ; it is not even demanded by 
the enemy ; it is the passing and ephemeral incense of weak 
minds to the Yankee. "We shall find in another instance a 
truer indication of the future of the South, and a better ex- 
pression of what remains of its spirit. When Jefferson Davis, 
the President of the Confederate States, was seeking safety in 
flight, a fellow traveller remarked to him that the cause of the 
Confederates was lost. He replied : 

" It appears so. But the principle for which we contended 
is hound to reassert itself^ though it may he at another time and 
in another form.^^ 



APPENDIX No. II. 



EECONSTEUCTION. 

Provisional Governments. — The Mississippi question. — The Amnesty Proola- 
MATioN. — The franchise in Virginia. — Paroled prisoners. — Trade. — The defi- 
nition OF " LOYALTY." — MESSAGE OF PrOVISIONAL-GoVERNOR JohNSON OF GEORGIA. 

— Message of Provisional-Governor Perry of South Carolina. — The last six 
DAYS of the Confederacy. 



It would exceed tlie purpose and limits of this volume to 
discuss the conseqtiences of the war, with respect to the po- 
litical and civil rights of the people of the South. But, as 
a brief and appropriate appendix, we may make up the rec- 
ord of the official acts of the Washington Government, and 
those of some of the States, in this regard, which gives the 
outline of the history of reconstruction, so far as it has pro- 
gressed, up to the date of this publication. 



Provisional Governments. 

The following proclamation of the President of the United 
States, issued with reference to the re-establishment of the 
State authority in North Carolina, was observed literally, or 
substantially, with reference to the other Southern States, and 
indicates the general plan of reconstruction : 

" Whereas, the fourth section of the fourth article of the 
constitution of the United States declares, that the United 
States shall guarantee to every State in the Union a repub- 



288 TIIK LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 

iican form of government, and shall protect each of them 
against invasion and domestic violence; and 

" Whereas, the President of the United States is, by the con- 
stitution, made commander-in-chief of the army and navj'^, as 
well as chief executive officer of the United States, and is 
bound by solemn oath faithfully to execute the office of Pres- 
ident of the United States, and to take care that the laws be 
faithfully executed ; and 

" Whereas, the rebellion, which has been waged by a portion 
of the people of the United States, against the properly con- 
stituted authorities of the Government thereof, in the most 
violent and revolting form, but whose organized and armed 
forces have now been almost entirely overcome, has, in its 
revolutionary progress, deprived the people of the State of 
I^orth Carolina of all civil government ; and 

" Whereas, it becomes necessary and proper to carry out and 
enforce the obligations of the United States to the people of 
North Carolina, in securing them in the enjoyment of a re- 
publican form of government : 

"!Now, therefore, in obedience to the high and solemn duties 
imposed upon me by the constitution of the United States, 
and for the purpose of enabling the loyal people of said State 
to organize a State government, whereby justice may be estab- 
lished, domestic tranquillity insured, and loyal citizens pro- 
tected in all their rights of life, liberty, and propert}^ ; I, 
Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, and Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, 
do hereby appoint William W. Holden provisional governor 
of the State of North Carolina; whose duty it shall be, at the 
earliest practicable period, to prescribe such rules and regula- 
tions as may be necessary and proper for convening a conven- 
tion, composed of delegates to be chosen by that portion of the 
people of said State who are loyal to the United States, and 
no others, for the purpose of altering or amending the consti- 
tution thereof, and with authority to exercise, within the lim- 
its of said State, all the powers necessary and proper to enable 
such loyal people of the State of North Carolina to restore 
said State to its constitutional relations to the Federal Gov- 
ernment, and to present such a republican form of State gov- 
ernment as will entitle the State to the guarantee of the 



APPENDIX. 289 

United States therefor, and its people to protection by the 
United States, against invasion, insurrection, and domestic 
violence: Provided, that, in any election that may be here- 
after held for choosing delegates to any State convention, as 
aforesaid, no person siiall be qualified as an elector, or shall 
be eligible as a member of sucli convention, unless he shall 
have previously taken and subscribed to the oatli, or amnesty, 
as set forth in the President's proclamation of May 29, 1865, 
and is a voter qualified as prescribed by the constitution and 
laws of the State of North Carolina in force immediately be- 
fore the 20th day of May, A. D. 1861, the date of the so- 
called ordinance of secession ; and the said convention, when 
convened, or the legislature that may be thereafter assembled, 
will prescribe the qualifications of electors, and the eligibility 
of persons to hold ofiice under the constitution and laws of the 
State — a power the people of the several States composing the 
Federal Union have rightfully exercised, from the origin of 
the Government to the present time. And I do hereby direct : 

" First. That the military commander of the department, and 
all ofiicers and persons in the military and naval service, aid 
and assist the said provisional governor in carrying into eflfect 
this proclamation; and they are enjoined to abstain from in 
any way hindering, impeding, or discouraging the loyal people 
from tlie organization of a State government, as herein au- 
thorized. 

" Second. That the Secretary of State proceed to put in force 
all laws of the United States, the administration whereof be- 
longs to the State Department, applicable to the geographical 
limits aforesaid. 

" Third. That the Secretary of the Treasury pi-oceed to nom- 
inate for appointment assessors of taxes, and collectors of cus- 
toms and internal revenue, and such other ofiicers of the 
Treasury Department as are authorized by law, and put in 
execution the revenue laws of the United States, within the 
geographical limits afoi'esaid. 

" In making the appointments, the preference shall be given 
to qualified, loyal persons residing within the districts where 
their respective duties are to be performed ; but if suitable 
residents of the districts shall not be found, then persons re- 
siding in other States or districts shall be appointed. 

19 



290 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

'■'- Fourth. That the Postmaster-General proceed to establish 
post-routes, and put into execution the postal laws of the 
United States, within the said State, giving to loyal residents 
the preference of appointment; but if suitable residents are 
not found, then appoint agents from other States. 

'-^ Fifth. That the district judge, for the judicial district in 
which North Carolina is included, proceed to hold courts 
within said State, in accordance with the provisions of the act 
of Congress. 

"Tiie attorney-general will instruct the proper officers to libel 
and bring to judgment, confiscation, and sale, property subject 
to confiscation, and enforce the administration of justice with- 
in said State, in all matters within the cognizance and jurisdic- 
tion of the Federal courts. 

" Sixth. That the Secretary of the ISTavy take possession of 
all public property belonging to the Navy Departinent within 
said geographical limits, and put in operation all acts of Con- 
gress,, in relation to naval affairs, having application to said 
St^te. 

" Seventh. That the Secretary of the Interior put in force all 
laws relating to the Interior Department, applicable to the 
geographical limits aforesaid. 

" In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and 
caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 

"Andrew Johnson. 

" Done at tlie city of Washington, this 29th day of May, in the year of our Lord 
one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, and of the independence of 
the United States the eighty-ninth. 

" By the President : 

" "Welliam H. Sewabd, Secretary of State." 



The Mississippi Question. 

In a letter from President Johnson to Governor Sharkey of 
Mississippi, relative to organizing the militia of that State, he 
wrote : 

" It is believed there can be organized in each county a 
force of citizen militia to preserve order and enforce the civil 



APPENDtX. 291 

authority of the State, and of the United States, which would 
enable the Federal Government to reduce the array and with- 
draw, to a great extent, the forces from the State, thereby re- 
ducing the enormous expenses of the Government. 

" If there was any danger from an organization of the citi- 
zens for the purpose indicated, the military are there to sup- 
press, on the first appearance, any move insurrectionary in its 
character. One great object is to induce the people to come 
forward in the defence of the State and Federal Governments. 
General "Washington declared, that the people, or the militia, 
was the arm of the constitution, or the arm of the United 
States ; and, as soon as it is practicable, the original design of 
the Government should be resumed under the principles of 
the great charter of freedom, handed down to the people by 
the founders of the Republic. The people must be trusted 
with their government, and, if trusted, my opinion is, that they 
will act in good faith, and restore their former constitutional 
relations with all the States composing the Union. The main 
object of Major-General Caii Schurz's mission to the South was 
to aid, as much as practicable, in carrying out the policy 
adopted by the Government for restoring the States to their 
former relations with the Federal Government. It is hoped 
such aid has been given. The proclamation authorizing the 
restoiation of State government requires the military to aid 
the Provisional Governor in the performance of his duties as 
prescribed in the proclamation, and in no manner to interfere 
or throw impediments in the wa}' of the consummation of the 
object of his appointment, at least without advising the Gov- 
ernment of the intended interference. 

" Andrew Johkson." 

On September 2d, the President received a dispatch from 
Governor Sharkey, stating that General Slocum had issued an 
order preventing the execution of his proclamation of August 
19th, to organize the militia of the State for certain purposes 
of home protection, and acknowledging the receipt of the copy 
of the dispatch sent to General Schurz on the 30th ultinio, 
whicli dispatch Governor Sharkey earnestly requested permis- 
sion to publish. 

To this request, the President replied by telegraph : 



292 THE LAST YEAK OF THE WAE. 

"My dispatch was not intended for publication, but yon 
can make such use of it as you deem best." 

The same day the following dispatch was sent to General 

Slocum : 

" War Department, Washington, D. C, Sept. 2. 

'' Majoe-Genebal Slocum, &c. : 

" Upon the 19th of August, Governor Sharkey issued a proc- 
lamation calling for the formation of military companies in 
each county to detect criminals, prevent crime, and preserve 
good order in places where the military forces of the United 
States were insufficient to do so. If you have issued any order 
countermanding this proclamation, or interfering with its exe- 
cution, you will at once revoke it. Acknowledge the receipt 
of this order, and telegraph your action on it. 

" By order of the President of the United States. 

"T. T. Eckert, 
" Acting Assistant Secretary of "War." 

The Amnesty Proclamation'. 

"Whereas, the President of the United States, on the eighth 
day of December, A. D. eighteen hundred and sixty-three, 
and on the twenty-sixth day of March, A. D. eighteen hundred 
and sixty-four, did, with the object to suppress the existing re- 
bellion, to induce all persons to return to their loyalty, and to 
restore the authority of the United States, issue proclamations 
offering amnesty and pardon to certain persons who had di- 
rectly or by implication participated in the said rebellion ; and 

"Whereas, many persons who had so engaged in said rebel- 
lion have, since the issuance of said proclamation, failed or 
neglected to take the benefits offered thereby ; and 

"Whereas, many persons who have been justly deprived of 
all claim to amnesty and pardon thereunder, by reason of their 
participation, directly or by implication, in said rebellion and 
continued hostility to the Government of the United States 
since the date of said proclamation, now desire to apply for and 
obtain amnesty and pardon ; 

To the end, therefore, that the authority of the Government 
of the United States may be restored, and that peace, order 



APPENDIX. 293 

and freedom may be established, I, Andrew Johnson, Presi- 
dent of the United States, do proclaim and declare that I here- 
by grant to all persons who have directly or indirectly parti- 
cipated in the existing rebellion, except as hereinafter except- 
ed, amnesty and pardon, with restoration of all rights of prop- 
erty, except as to slaves, and except in cases where legal pro- 
ceedings, under the laws of the United States providing for 
the confiscation of property of persons engaged in rebellion, 
have been instituted ; but on the condition, nevertheless, that 
every such person shall take and subscribe to the following 
oath or affirmation, and thenceforward keep and maintain said 
oath inviolate, and which oath shall be registered for perma- 
nent preservation, and shall be of the tenor and effect follow- 
ing, to wit : 

I, , do solemnly swear (or affirm), in presence of 

Almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully support and 
defend the constitution of the United States and the Union of 
the States thereunder ; and that I will, in like manner, abide by 
and faithfully support all laws and proclamations which have 
been made during the existing rebellion with reference to the 
emancipation of slaves. So help me God. 

The following classes of persons are excepted from the bene- 
fits of this proclamation. 

.Fwst. All who are, or shall have been, pretended civil or 
diplomatic officers, or otherwise, domestic or foreign agents, of 
th e pretended Confederate Government. 

Second. All who left judicial stations under the United 
States to aid the rebellion. 

Third. All who shall have been military or naval officers 
of said pretended Confederate Government above the rank of 
colonel in the army and lieutenant in the navy. 

Fourth. All who left seats in the Congress of the United 
States to aid the rebellion. 

Fifth. All who resigned or tendered resignations of their 
commissions in the army oi* navy of the United States to evade 
duty in resisting the rebellion. 

Sixth. All who have engaged in any way in treating other- 
wise than lawfully as prisoners of war persons found in the 
United States service as officers, soldiers, seamen, or in other 
capacities. 



294 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAK. 

Seventh. All persons who have been or are absentees from 
the United States for the purpose of aiding the rebellion. 

Eighth. All military and naval officers of the rebel ser- 
vice who were educated by the Government in the Military 
Academy at West Point, or the United States Naval Acad- 
emy. 

Ninth. All persons who held the pretended offices of gov- 
ernors of States in insurrection against the United States. 

Tenth. All persons who left their homes within the juris- 
diction and protection of the United States, and passed beyond 
the Federal military lines into the so-called Confederate States 
for the purpose of aiding the rebellion. 

Eleventh. All persons who have been engaged in the de- 
struction of the commerce of the United States upon the high 
seas, and all persons who have made raids into the United 
States from Canada, or been engaged in destroying the com- 
merce of the United States upon the lakes and rivers that sep- 
arate the British provinces from the United States. 

Twelfth. All persons who, at the time when they seek to 
obtain the benefits hereof, by taking the oath herein prescribed, 
are in military, naval, or civil confinement or custody, or under 
bonds of the civil, military, or naval authorities or agents of 
the United States, as prisoners of war or persons detained for 
offences of any kind either before or after conviction. 

Thirteenth. All persons who have voluntarily participated 
in said rebellion, and the estimated value of whose taxable 
property is over twenty thousand dollars. 

Fourteenth. All persons who have taken the oath of amnes- 
ty, as prescribed in the President's proclamation of December 
8th, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, or an oath of 
allegiance to the Government of the United States, since the 
date of said proclamation, and who have not thenceforward 
kept and maintained the same inviolate. 

Provided, that special application may be made to the Pres- 
ident for pardon by any person belonging to the excepted 
classes, and such clemency will be liberally extended as may 
be consistent with the facts of the case, and the peace and dig- 
nity of the United States. 

The Secretary of State will establish rules and regulations for 
administering and recording the said amnesty oath, so as to in- 



APPENDIX. 295 

sure its benefit to the people, and guard the Government 
against fraud. 

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and 
caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 

Andrew Johnson. 

Done at the city of Wasliingt.on, the twenty-ninth day of May, in the year of 
our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, and of the independ- 
ence of the United States the eiglity -ninth. 

By the President : 

Wm. H. Sewakd, Secretaiy of State. 

The Franchise in Virginia. 

To the Justices of the County Courts of Virghiia : 

Gentlkmkn — I desire to call your attention to the second 
paragraph of the third article of the State constitution, which 
is in the following words : 

" No person shall vote, or hold office under this constitution, who has held 
office under the so-called Confederate government, or any rebellious State 
government, or who has been a member of the so-called Confederate Congress, 
or a member of any State Legislature in rebellion against the authority of the 
United States, excepting therefrom coimty officers." 

I have reliable information that in a number of counties in 
the State, persons have been elected to the office of Common- 
wealth's attorney, sheriff, commissioner of the revenue, and 
clerk of the court, and, in some instances, justices of the peace, 
who are disqualified by the clause of . the constitution above 
quoted, and who have not been relieved by acts of the General 
Assembly. Wherever it has come to the knowledge of the 
executive, that a person elected as a justice of the peace labors 
under the disability referred to, a commission has been refused. 
You will also take care that no justice to whom a commission 
has been issued, and who is disqualified under the said clause, 
be permitted to qualify ; and you will further take care that 
no person so disqualified, who has been elected to the offices 
above referred to, shall qualify or enter upon their duties. 

You will consider all offices above referred to, to which 
persons so disqualified shall have been elected, vacant, and 
order elections immediately to fill such vacancies. 

Judges of the Circuit Courts will observe this order in or- 
ganizing their respective courts. 



296 THE LAST YEAE OF THE WAE. 

I take it for granted that this seeming disrespect for the 
constitution has arisen from a want of proper consideration. 
I am loth to believe that it has been done, in any instance, 
through any disrespect for the constitution and laws of the 
State ; but I feel it incumbent on me to see that the organic 
law of the State is enforced. 

In the elections to fill vacancies, you will be guided by the 
provisions of the code of 1860. 

F. H. PlEEPOINT, 

Governor of Yirginia. 

The following is a copy of the franchise bill passed by the 
General Assembly : 

" An act prescribing means ly icJdch persons who Tiave heen disfrancMsed hy the 
third article of the constitution may be restored to the rights of voters. 
Passed June 23, 1865. 

" Whereas, in the opinion of this General Assembly, the time 
has arrived when it would be safe and expedient to restore to 
the rights of voters certain persons who are disfranchised by 
the provisions of the third article of the constitution' of Yir- 
ginia ; now, for the purpose of so restoring such persons, 

" Be it enacted hy the Oeneral Assembly of Virginia, That 
every person possessing, in other respects, tlie qualification of 
a voter under the constitution and law^s of the State, Nvho has 
taken, or who shall hereafter take, the oath prescribed by the 
Amnesty Proclamation of the President of the United States, 
of the 29th of May, 1865, which oath is in the following words, 
to wit: " I do solemnly swear ^or affirm), in the presence of 
Almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully support, pro- 
tect, and defend the constitution of the United States, and the 
union of the States thereunder ; and that I will in like manner 
abide by, and faithfully support, all laws and proclamations 
which have been made during the existing rebellion, with 
reference to the emancipation of slaves ;" and an oath to 
uphold and defend the government of Yirginia, as restored 
by the convention which assembled at Wheeling, on the 11th 
day of June, 1861, which oath is in the following words : " I 
do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will uphold and defend 
the government of Yirginia, as restored by the convention 
which assembled at Wheeling, on the lltli day of June, 1861,'* 



APPENDIX. 297 

shall be entitled and qualified to vote for members of the 
General Assembly, and all officers elective by the people, 
subject always to the laws in regard to voters and voting, not 
inconsistent with this act. Provided, however, that the per- 
sons excluded by the terms of the said proclamation from the 
benefits thereof, excepting those embraced in the thirteenth 
class of such excluded persons, shall not be entitled or qualified 
to vote as aforesaid, unless pardoned by the President, as pro- 
vided for by said proclamation. This act shall be in force 
from its passage." 

Paroled Pkisoneks. 

Department of State, Washington, August 35, 1865. 
Paroled prisoners asking passports, as citizens of the United 
States, and against whom no special charges may be pending, 
will be furnished with passports upon application therefor to 
the Department of State, in the usual form. Such passports 
will, however, be issued upon the condition that the applicants 
do not return to the United States without leave of the presi- 
dent. Other persons implicated in the rebellion, who may 
wish to go abroad, will apply to the Department of State for 
passports, and the applications will be disposed of according 
to the merits of the several cases. 

By the President of the United States, 

William H. Sewaed. 

Trade. 

By proclamation of the President of the United States of the 
29th of April, 1865, all restrictions upon internal, domestic, 
and commercial intercourse — with the exception of the follow- 
ing articles: arms, ammunition, all articles from which am- 
munition is made, and gray uniforms and cloth — were removed 
in such parts of the States of Tennessee, Virginia, North Car- 
olina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, 
and so much of Louisiana as lies east of the Mississippi liiver 
as shall be embraced within the lines of national miHtary occu- 
pation. 

On the 13th of June, a proclamation was published direct- 



298 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 

ing that all restrictions upon internal, domestic, and coastwise 
intercourse and trade, and upon the removal of products of 
States heretofore declared in insurrection — reserving ana ex- 
cepting only those relating to contraband of war, and also 
those which relate to the reservation of rights of the United 
States to property purchased in the territory of an enemy, 
heretofore imposed in the territory of the United States, east 
of the Mississippi River — be forthwith removed ; and that, on 
and after the tirst day of July next, all i-estrictions upon for- 
eign comm.erce with said ports, with the exception and res- 
ervation aforesaid, be removed; and that the commerce of said 
States shall be conducted under the supervision of the regu- 
larly appointed officers of the customs provided by law; and 
such officers of the customs shall receive any captured and 
abandoned property that may be turned over to them, under 
the law, by the military or naval forces of the United States, 
and dispose of such property as shall be directed by the secre- 
tary of the treasury. 

On the 23d of June, the following proclamation was issued, 
as to the termination of the blockade : 

" Whereas, by the proclamations of the President of the 15th 
and 27th of April, 1861, a blockade of certain ports of the 
United States was set on foot; but, whereas, the reasons for 
that measure have ceased to exist : Now, therefore, be it 
known, that I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United 
States, do hereby declare and proclaim the blockade aforesaid 
to be rescinded, as to all the ports aforesaid, including that of 
Galveston, and other ports west of the Mississippi River, which 
ports will be open to foreign commerce on the iirst of July 
next, on the terms and conditions set forth in my proclama- 
tion of the 2'2d of May last. It is to be understood, however, 
that the blockade thus rescinded was an international measure, 
for the purp(>se of protecting the sovereign rights of the United 
States. The greater or less subversion of the civil authority 
in the region to which it applied, and the impracticability of at 
once restoring that, in due efficiency, may for a season make 
it advisable to emplo}^ the army and navy of the United States 
towards carrying the laws into effect, wherevei' such employ- 
ment may be necessary. 



APPENDIX. 299 

" In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, acd 
caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 

" Andrew Johnson. 

" Done at tlie city of Washington, this twenty-third day of June, in the year of 
our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, and of the independ- 
ence of the United States of America the eighty-ninth. 

" By the President : 

" W. Hunter, Acting Secretary of State." 

By proclamation of the 24th of June, the benefits of former 
proclamations, annulling all restrictions upon internal, do- 
mestic, and coastwise intercourse and trade, and upon the 
purchase and removal of products of States, and parts of States 
and territories, heretofore declared in insurrection, were ex- 
tended to the States and territories lying west of the Missis- 
sippi Eiver. 

The following proclamation appears to have finally ac- 
complished the entire freedom of trade with the Southern 
States : 

"Whereas, by my proclamations of the 13th and 24th of June, 
1865, removing restrictions, in part, upon internal, domestic, 
and coastwise intercourse and trade with those States recently 
declared in insurrection, certain articles were exempted from 
the effect of said proclamation as contraband of war ; and 

" AVhereas, the necessity for restricting trade in said articles 
has now, in great measure, ceased, it is hereby ordered that 
on and after the 3d day of September, 1865, all restrictions 
aforesaid be removed, so that articles, declared by the said 
proclamations to be contraband of war, may be imported into 
and sold in said States, subject only to such regulations as the 
secretary of the treasury may prescribe. 

" In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and 
caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 

" Andrew Johnson. 

" Done at the city of Washington, this twenty-ninth day of August, in the year 
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty -five, and of the independ- 
ence of the United States of America the eighty-ninth. 

«' By the President : 

" W. H. Seward, Secretary of State." ' 



300 the last tear of the war. 

The Definition of " Loyalty." 

The following is the text of a communication, dated Wash- 
ington, October, 28, 1865, and transmitted to his excellency, 
James Johnson, provisional-governor of Georgia, Milledge- 
ville: 

" Washington, October 29, 1865. 

" Your several telegrams have been, received. The Presi- 
dent of the United States cannot recognize the people of any 
State as having resumed their relations of loyalty to the Union, 
that admits, as legal, obligations contracted or debts created 
in their name to promote the war of the rebellion. 

" W. H. Sewakd." 

The following has been addressed to his excellency, William 
Marvin, provisional-governor of Florida, at Tallahassee : 

" Washington, November 1, 1865. 
" Your letter of October 7th was read, and submitted to the 
President. He is gratified with the favorable progress to- 
wards reorganization in Florida, and directs me to say that he 
regards the ratification, by the Legislature, of the congressional 
amendment of the constitution of the United States, as indis- 
pensable to a successful restoration of the true loyal relations 
between Florida and the other States, and equally indispen- 
sable to the return of peace and harmony throughout the 
Republic. 

" WiLLLA-M H. Seward." 

Message of Provisional-Governor Johnson of Georgia. 

The Georgia Legislature met on the 25th of October, 1865. 
After organization, the following message was sent in by the 
governor : 

" Gentlemkn of the Convention — The circumstances under 
which you have assembled, make it proper, in my judgment, 
that you should have set before you a summary of the financial 
condition of the State, that you may be the better prepared to 
give appropriate directions to executive officers touching the 



APPENDIX. 301 

discharge of important duties necessary to be performed before 
the Legislature will assemble. Upon entering on the duties of 
my office, I ascertained from a source deemed reliable, that 
the cotton which had been previously purchased by the State, 
had either been captured or consumed by fire ; and that all of 
the assets the State held abroad, had been drawn against to 
the full extent of their value. 

" The Western and Atlantic Railroad yielded us no income, 
and the stock belonging to the State in banks and other rail- 
roads were entirely unavailable. Our charitable institutions — 
the Academy for the Blind at the city of Macon and the Lun- 
atic Asylum at this place — were without funds, and are now 
compelled to resort to such credit as they may obtain to pro- 
cure supplies necessary for the maintenance of their unfortu- 
nate inmates. The penitentiary, with its shops and machinery, 
has been nearly destroyed, to such an extent as to render it 
wholly inadequate to accomplish the purpose designed, and 
nearly all of the convicts have either escaped or been dis- 
charged. 

" It will be necessary, therefore, to make some provisions to 
carry into effect the judgments of the courts against certain 
criminals for offences committed in violation of existing laws, or 
which may be committed, until new laws shall be made pre- 
scribing new penalties and other modes of inflicting punish- 
ment for crime. 

" During the progress of the war, the Western and Atlantic 
Railroad was alternately destroyed and rebuilt by the contend- 
ing armies, until by the operations of last spring it finally fell 
into the possession of the military authorities of the United 
States. By them it was temporarily repaired and put in run- 
ning order, and by them retained until about the 25th of last 
month, when it was turned over to the State upon certain terms 
and conditions proposed by the United States. Most of the 
depots on the road and the workshops on it are to be repaired 
or rebuilt, many cross-ties to be furnished, and much of the 
iron to be relaid. The bridges over the streams were found to 
be frail, and liable to be swept off by the first heavy freshets. 
Such being the case, the superintendent and directors did not 
hesitate, with my approval, to enter into contracts for the im- 
mediate construction of permanent and substantial bridges 



302 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAE. 

They are fourteen in number, and by the terms of the contracts 
are to be completed by the 15th of December next. The rolling- 
stock on the road being iusufiicient, the superintendent and di- 
rectors purchased of the United States nine engines and about 
one hundred cars. This outlay cannot be met by the proceeds 
of the I'oad, but will require, it is estimated, more than half a 
million of dollars. 

" I have caused some repairs to be put upon the State House 
and Executive Mansion. These will require further appro- 
priations, to replenish and put them in proper order. Having 
no available assets with which to pay the mileage of the mem- 
bers of the Convention or their per diem, I borrowed on the 
faith of the State, from citizens of Augusta, about the sum of 
fifty thousand dollars, to be used by the Convention for that 
pui*pose. Special contracts have been made with the citizens 
lending the money, to which contracts I invite your attention, 
and respectfully ask that they be approved, and that provi- 
sion be made to meet them promptly. 

" Since our last election for members to the Congress of the 
United States, a new apportionment of representatives has been 
made under the census returns of 1860 ; and by that appor- 
tionment the number allotted to the State of Georgia is reduced 
to seven. It being desirable that representatives should be 
elected at as early a day as practicable, it will be proper that 
the Convention shall, by resolution or otherwise, divide the 
State into the requisite number of districts, and order that the 
election for members to Congress be held on the same day as 
that on which the governor and mem.bers of the General As- 
sembly may be directed to be holden; 

" The changes which the war and its results have made in our 
property, population, and resources, suggest that some corre- 
sponding changes or modiUcations be made in the organic law, 
fixing the basis and the mode of representation in each branch 
of the General Assembl3^ To approximate perfect justice on 
this subject, is, under the most favorable circumstances, al- 
most impossible ; but with us, at present, it is still more diffi- 
cult, because of the want of accurate statistical information. For 
the purpose of aiding you in performing this delicate task, I have 
procured for the use of the Convention, " Vol. Population" of 
the census of 1860, and which will be furnished when desired. 



APPENDIX. 303 

" Within the past few years we have made several experi- 
ments on our judicial system. These experiments, I think, 
have demonstrated that t'he judges should be independent of 
the executive, and that sound policy, and the wholesome ad- 
ministration of law, require that the governor be deprived of 
the appointment of all judicial functionaries. The administra- 
tion of justice will, under the new condition of society, require 
that the organic law be so made, as to allow the Legislature to 
establish inferior tribunals, in each county, with jurisdiction 
over certain classes of civil and criminal causes. The sessions 
of such courts should be frequent, so as to dispatch business 
without delay ; and should be held, subject to legislation, from 
time to time, as the public exigencies might require. 

" In this connection, I cannot forbear earnestly recommending 
to your deliberate consideration, the propriety of ordaining 
that the Supreme Court shall hold its sessions at one place, 
and that one place shall be the seat of government for the 
State. The advantages resulting from it will be many and 
great. It will better secure the convenniece of suitors, and 
approximate more nearly in distributing justice to each man's 
door. It will add consequence to our capital, give more dig- 
nity to the court, and more authority to their decisions. 

"The public debt of the State, as reported by the comptroller, 
amounts to about $20,813,525. Of this sum, $2,667,750 were 
contracted prior to the commencement of the war ; the bal- 
ance, about $18,135,775, during its existence. On the amount 
incurred previous to hostilities, there is now due and unpaid 
about the sum of $284,000. The liabilities incurred before the 
war are, in every sense, a debt ; and the State is bound, by 
every consideration of good faith and public morality, so to re- 
gard it, and to make provision for the prompt and faithful dis- 
charge of such liability. No reasonable doubt can be enter- 
tained that such will be her pleasure and her action. But the 
debt created during the war stands on a very different basis. 
It is of no legal or moral obligation, because it was created to 
aid in the prosecution of a war of rebellion against the United 
States. The purpose sought to be accomplished was unconsti- 
tutional ; and all who participated, in any wise, in the effort to 
sever the country, were violators of law, and can, therefore, set 
up no claim, either legal or equitable, for money advanced, or 



304: THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 

for services rendered. Furthermore, these contracts, from 
which a litibiUty is said to result, were made with Georgia in 
revolt — with Georgia as a member of the Confederate States 
government. The government to which she then belonged 
has been overthrown, and with its overthrow, all Confederate 
debts became extinct. Georgia, as a component part of it, no 
longer exists, and her debts then incurred, have, in like man- 
ner, been extinguished. She is now no longer in revolt. She 
is one of the States of the Federal Union ; and, in her return to 
reconciliation, her allegiance to the Government requires that 
the act of secession be cancelled, and all other acts done and 
performed in aid of the rebellion be declared void and of no 
effect. The ultimate redemption of the currency, both State 
and Confederate, was made dependent, in fact and in terms, 
upon the result of the fatal struggle. Ko one expected pay- 
ment, if finally defeated in our efforts to secure independence; 
and, therefore, no plighted faith is violated by a refusal on the 
part of Georgia to assume to pay an indebtedness dependent 
on the issue. The currency and the cause flourished together, 
while in life ; and now that the cause has no longer a being, 
the currency that sustained it may well be interred in the same 
grave. 

" To call a refusal on the part of the State to acknowledge or 
pay these extinct demands repudiation, is but a perversion of 
the use of language, and presents an appearance of an attempt 
to sustain and uphold a desperate cause by a resort to odious 
words and opprobrious epithets. Our burdens are already 
great, and our strength greatly diminished. The assumption 
of such a debt will still add to our weakness, impair our 
credit, increase our taxes, deter immigration, prevent capital 
from seeking an investment among us, and will embarrass us 
in a variety of ways for years to come. 

" To transler this great question to the Legislature will be 
considered as a quasi indorsement of its justice. The Legisla- 
ture will have its own peculiar burdens to bear, and will be 
pressed with business beyond that of any one that has assem- 
bled in our day. It will be charged with framing and passing 
tax laws, police laws, penal laws, laws relating to contracts 
and to all the manifold relations of life. Such subjects will 
be sufficient to consume the time and the talents of the most 



APPENDIX. 305 

able and industrious of men ; and the public welfare will de- 
mand that, to these subjects, the members of the Legislature 
shall give tlieir earnest, best, and undivided efi'orts. Let not 
that body, when in session, be besieged, from day to day, by 
claimants, and their agents and attorneys, urging the assump- 
tion, in whole or in part, of these unconstitutional demands. 
Let the hope of reward in such eiforts be entirely cut off; let 
this overflowing fountain of corruption be now and forever 
dried up; and let the record of your action on this subject dis- 
courage, in the future, all premature efforts to overthrow long 
and well-established government. In a word, ordain solenmly 
and deliberately that no Legislature, now or hereafter, shall, 
directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, assume to pay, in 
any manner, these demands, unconstitutional in their creation, 
and many of them without even the countenance of equity to 
support them. 

" The events of this year will constitute an era in history. 
Slavery has been abolished in these States. Georgia, in con- 
vention, is called upon to put on record an acknowledgment 
of the accomplished f^ict, to give assurance to mankind that 
involuntary servitude shall not hereafter, in any form, or by 
virtue of any device, exist within her borders ; to enjoin on 
succeeding legislators that they shall guard by law the com- 
munity from the evils of sudden emancipation ; shall secure 
those emerging from bondage in the enjoyment of their legal 
rights ; and shall protect the humble, the ignorant, and the 
weak from wrong and aggression. Such are some of the un- 
foreseen and wonderful results of the war. In passing through 
this revolution our chastisements have been sevei'e and our 
calamities have been heavy ; but we should do well to remember 
that this great change is of Him who does all things wisely 
and "according to the councils of His will." 

" J. Johnson, 
" Provisional-Governor of Georgia." 
20 



306 THE LAST YEAK OF THE WAK. 



Message of Pkovisional-Goveknok Perry of South Carolina. 

Executive Department, South Carolina, Oct. 24, 1865. 

To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives : 
* * * * * -x- 

After the termination of our recent disastrous and ruinous 
struggle with the Federal Government, it pleased the Presi- 
dent of the United States to select me, without my knowledge 
or any solicitation on the part of my friends, for the high and 
responsible position which I now hold, to organize a State 
government for South Carolina, and have her restored to all 
her civil and political rights as a member of the Federal 
Union, I felt deeply the delicate responsibility of the station 
to which I had been called, and was fearful that, in obeying 
the orders and carrying out the policy of the Federal Govern- 
ment, I should' not be able to protect the State and save the 
people from unjust exaction and oppression. But, most foi'- 
tunately, the wise, generous, and magnanimous policy of 
President Johnson towards the Southern States has enabled 
me to do both, and rendered my administration pleasant and 
gratifying to me. I have been greatly sustained, too, by the 
honor, patriotism, and loyalty of the people. 

Though I received my appointment several months after 
other provisional governors had been cpnimissioned, I have 
the pleasure of informing you that South Carolina is now as 
far advanced in her reconstruction as any other Southern 
State. Instead of wasting time in trying to fill all the civil 
offices of the State with my personal or political friends and 
partisans, I determined to restore those who were in office at 
the suspension of the civil government, and who had been 
elected by the people or appointed by the Legislature, and 
^^^ere familiar with their official duties. I knew too well the 
character of South Carolina, to doubt for a moment that her 
sons would prove loyal and true, after renewing their oaths of 
allegiance to the United States. In this way I re-established 
civil government at once in South Carolina, and greatly expe- 
dited her reconstruction. An election for members of the 
convention to reform our State constitution was immediately 



APPENDIX. 307 

ordered. Magistrates were authorized to administer the oath 
of allegiance, so as to qualify the voters in time for the elec- 
tion. I also restored civil law throughout the State, and 
ordered the courts to be opened. These measures were ob- 
jected to by the military authorities, as transcending my 
powers as provisional governor. But the President sustained 
me in all that I had done, and ordered the military authorities 
not to interfere Math my policy of reconstruction. Like a wise 
statesman and patriot, he confides in the people, desires to see 
them enjoying civil liberty and governing themselves. Wash- 
ington had the immortal honor of creating the American Re- 
public, and to Andrew Johnson will be assigned, in history, 
the glory of having reconstructed its broken and dismembered 
fragments, without marring its civil beauties. Like Washing- 
ton, too,, he is, by his just, wise, and magnanimous policy, 
uniting and consolidating all parties in the support of his ad- 
ministration. 

The State Convention assembled, and, after a most harmoni- 
ous session of fifteen days, presented a new constitution for the 
future government of South Carolina. This constitution is 
more popular and democratic in all of its features than the old 
one adopted in 1790. The parish system of representation in 
the Senate, which had become, by the growth of the upper 
country in wealth and population, unequal and unjust, allow- 
ing one judicial district to have ten senators, and others of 
equal extent in territory but one, was abolished, and all were 
assigned an equal representation in the Senate. The just, 
equal, and conservative basis of representation in the House, 
founded on white population and taxation, was retained. The 
unequal classification of lands has been changed, and taxes are 
now to be levied in proportion to the assessed value of all tax- 
able property. A moderate poll-tax is- provided for, which 
will cause all to contribute something towards the support of 
the government under which they live and are protected. The 
property qualification of members of the Senate and House of 
Kepresentatives, which seemed to presume that a man's pa- 
triotism depended on his wealth, has been dispensed with. 
The members of the Legislature are required to vote viva voce 
in all elections, so that their constituents may know for whom 
they voted. The chief magistrate of the State is to be elected 



308 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 

by the people for four years, and has a qualified veto on the 
legislation of the two houses. **-»** 

The emancipation of our slaves will, in all probability, ab- 
stract greatly from the active labor of the country. Planters 
and farmers should dispose of a portion of their lands to immi- 
grants and capitalists from Europe and the North. This will 
increase the wealth and industry of the State, and render more 
valuable the lands which remain unsold. It will also have a 
wholesome check on the colored population, and strengthen 
our security from insurrections and violence. Three-fourths of 
the State of South Carolina are uncultivated. Instead of a 
population of seven hundred thousand, our territory is suffi- 
cient to support one of seven millions, if properly distributed 
in manufactures, commerce, and agriculture. 

It becomes your urgent duty, gentlemen, to make immedi- 
ate provision for the protection and government of the freed- 
men and colored people who have been so suddenly released 
from slavery in their ignorance and destitution. This is alike 
due to humanity and justice, as well as the imperative neces- 
sities of society. The negro has lost the protection of his mas- 
ter, and he must now be protected by the law. This is expected 
of you by the President and the Federal Congress, and will 
remove all pretence for military rule in the State, as well as 
facilitate your speedy restoration to the Union and self-gov- 
ernment. The negro is innocent of all that he has gained, and 
all that you have lost, and he is entitled to your sympathy 
and kindness, your protection and guidance. The Convention 
ordered the provisional-governor to appoint a commission for 
the purpose of preparing and submitting to the Legislature for 
their adoption a code of laws for the protection and govern- 
ment of the freedmen and colored persons. In obedience to 
their order, I have appointed Judge Wardlaw and Mr. Burt, 
two of the most eminent jurists in the State, to compose this 
commission. They will, in due time, report to you the result 
of their labors. The Convention also authorized the Legisla- 
ture to establish a court in each district, for the trial of all cases 
in which freedmen are concerned. It becomes your duty to see 
that these courts are organized. * * * * 

The election of members of Congress should be provided for 
at as early a day as possible. It is a matter of the highest im- 



APPENDIX. 309 

portance, that our representatives in Congress should be in 
Washington, ready to take their seats on the first Monday in 
December. By act of Congress, passed March, 1863, it is made 
the duty of the clerk of the previous House of Representatives 
to " make a roll of the representatives elect, and place thereon 
the names of all persons — and such persons only — whose cre- 
dentials show that they were regularly elected, in accordance 
with the laws of their States respectively, or the laws of the 
United States." It is therefore the imperative duty of the 
clerk to call the roll of the members of the Southern States, 
whose credentials have been exhibited to him, and shown that 
they were regularly elected. He has no more right, under 
this act, to exclude the members elect from South Carolina 
than he has to exclude those from Massachusetts. The Federal 
authoiities have maintained that the Union never was dis- 
solved, and that the Southern States have always been, and 
still- are, members of that Union. In July, 1862, Congress 
passed an act prescribing an oath of office for all persons to 
take who were elected or appointed to any oflSce of honor 
or profit under the Government of the United States. This 
oath requires the party to swear that he has never borne arms 
against the United States ; that he has never held or sought 
ofiice under any power inimical to the United States; that 
he has given no aid, counsel, or countenance to persons in 
hostility to the United States ; and that he has not yielded a 
voluntary support to any authority hostile to the United 
States. If this oath is to be applied to members of Congress, 
it will, of course, exclude all from South Carolina. It may, 
with truth, be said, that no man in South Carolina can take it, 
without committing perjury. But the constitution of the 
United States prescribes an oath for members of Congress to 
take, and they cannot be required to take any other oath con- 
etitutionally. There may have been some show of propriety 
for exacting this oath, when it was enacted, amidst the war 
between the Southern States and the United States ; but there 
can be none now, unless it be for the purpose of excluding the 
Southei'n people from all office within their respective States, 
and still holding those States in military subjection. I know 
that this is not the policy of the President, and I cannot be- 
lieve that it will be the avowed policy of the Federal Con- 



310 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 

gress. If the Southern members are present when the roll is 
called by States, they will take a part in the organization of 
the House, and may vote against the oath being tendered to 
the members when they are sworn. 

The Convention divided the State into four congressional dis- 
tricts, which you will respect and recognize as election dis- 
tricts. It will be your duty, also, at some convenient and 
proper time, during your extra session, to elect two United 
States Senators to represent the State of South Carolina in the 
Senate of the United States. There are now two vacancies 
in that body from South Carolina. * * * 

The subject of finance is one of great embarrassment and 
serious difficulty at this time in South Carolina, and will re- 
quire great wisdom and sagacity in your legislation. The peo- 
ple are in a most destitute condition, without money and with- 
out the means of paying their taxes. Their gold and silver 
were exported during the war as a species of commerce. The 
State banks are all broken, and their bills have ceased to circu- 
late. The Confederate money, with which the country was 
inundated, is utterly worthless. The Federal currency is inac- 
cessible to our people. Their cotton has been destroyed, and 
their provisions consumed by the armies, and they have nothing 
to procure money with. Under these circumstances, it would 
be well for you to consider whether or not it is possible to de- 
fray the necessary expenses of the State by issuing and selling 
State bonds, so as to avoid levying any tax during the ensuing 
year. The present indebtedness of the State is not large, and 
her credit ought to be such as to secure the sale of her bonds 
at fair prices. If you conclude to raise money in this way, you 
ought to include the payment of the direct tax, and which 
South Carolina now owes the United States, and which her 
citizens will soon be called upon to pay. 

It is important that the courts of justice in this State should 
be once more fully opened, civil law restored and properly 
administered. This cannot be done till yon fill the several 
vacancies on the bench. You will have to electa chief-justice 
of the State, two law judges, and one chancellor. 

The reorganization of the militia is a measure of the highest 
importance under existing circumstances. I have received in- 
formation from the Secretary of State at Washington that, as 



APPENDIX. 311 

soon as our State government is organized, all the Federal 
troops would be withdrawn from South Carolina. We must 
then relj on the militia for the protection of the State against 
insurrection and domestic violence. It is a matter of serious 
consideration, however, whether we should not desire to retain, 
for the present, a portion of the Federal troops in the State. 
The freed men and colored people look to these troops as their 
friends and protectors, and would be much less likely to have 
any collision with them than with the militia. The colored 
garrisons which were at one time stationed throughout the 
country, have done infinite mischief, by inducing the negroes 
to believe that all the lands of their former owners were to be 
divided out among them. This has made them discontented 
and unwilling to make contracts for the ensuing year. In 
many portions of the State there are serious apprehensions of 
disturbance at the beginning of the next year. Strong garri- 
sons ought to be continued in Charleston, Beaufort, and 
Georgetown, where there is such a preponderance of the negro 
population. But these garrisons should not be permitted to 
exercise any civil jurisdiction, and should be subordinate to 
civil law. Otherwise their presence would be productive of 
more mischief than good. You will take such action in this 

matter as in your judgment shall seem best for the State. 
* * % -x- 

As soon as the Convention adjourned, I communicated to 
the President and Secretary of State copies of the new consti- 
tution of South Carolina. I have the pleasure of informing 
you that President Johnson has expressed to me his gratifica- 
tion at the amendments made in our constitution, and his con- 
fident hope that we should soon be, once more, " a united, 
happy, and prosperous people, forgetting the past, and looking 
only to the future welfare of our common country." 

The bank of the State, like all similar institutions, is in a 
most embarrassed and crippled condition by the loss of its ad- 
vancements to the late Confederate States. I have not had 
the pleasure of seeing the report of the President. This docu- 
ment will be submitted to you in proper time, and then you 
will be able to take such action in reference to the bank as 
its condition requires. Whatever may be the state of our 
finances, I am sure South Carolia will never sully her honor 



^12 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAE. 

bj any act of repudiation. If we have lost every thing else, let 
us on that account be more careful in maintaining the honor 
of the State. 

In conclusion, I would urge you, gentlemen, to look only to 
the future in your legislation, and forget, so far as you can, 
the past. There is much to hope and live for yet in South 
Carolina. We should congratuhite ourselves and the country 
that civil war has ceased, and peace is restored to the land. 
No longer are our citizens to be forced from their homes and 
families and offered a bloody sacrifice on the field of battle. 
No longer is our beloved' State to be ravaged and desolated, and 
our towns and villages committed to the flames. A merciful 
Providence has once more blessed our land with an abundant 
crop, and no longer have we any apprehensions of want and 
starvation. "We are in the enjoyment of health. Our young 
men, noble and gallant soldiers, are peaceably resuming their 
former vocations, and exerting themselves in restoring the State 
to her wonted prosperity and happiness. No civil broils or 
deadly feuds are disgracing our people as in other States. We 
have no political divisions. South Carolina presented a unit after 
her act of secession, and she is now united as o.ne man in re- 
turning to the Union, and will be as true and loyal to her 
plighted faith as any State north of Mason and Dixon's line. 
In this respect there is no difference between former secession- 
its and old Union men. They all have equally at heart the 
peace, honor, glory, and prosperity of the American republic. 
And I earnestly pray that all your legislation and deliberations 
may tend to this great purpose, under the guidance and pro- 
tection of Almighty God. 

B. F. Perky. 



The LAST Six Days of the Confederacy. 

It is said by Coleridge, that no man thrown to the surface 
of human affairs ever succeeded in simultaneously gaining dis- 
tinction and affection, unless he possessed something of an 
epicene nature — that is to say, a mixture of masculine and 
feminine qualities. Without claiming for General Lee, in 
the highest sense, the title of "great," it is impossible to 



APPENDIX. 313 

deny that bis memory will be eberished by those who, in the 
crisis of his three years of trial, stood and suffered by his 
side, as an exceptionally dear and precious possession. Few 
soldiers, if asked whether they would rather have served 
under Lee, on the one hand, or under Cromwell, Frederic the 
Great, Marlborough, or Napoleon, on the other, would hesi- 
tate to prefer the four famous generals to the discomfited Con- 
federate. Yet it is doubtful whether any of the four, after they 
had passed away, and had ceased to communicate the electric 
shock of their presence and contact — of eye, voice, character, 
and influence — to others, possessed such hold on the affections 
and esteem as were inspired by Robert E. Lee. 

The truth seems to be, that the greatest men de par lemonde 
are necessarily and intensely selfish. All great men are mon- 
sters, says a German proverb ; and it may, I think, be con- 
ceded, that when a man is playing a conspicuous role in life, 
and is generally loved, he is not, in the world's highest sense, 
great. He is probably something far better. He has the 
thoughtfulness about others, the unobtrusiveness and renun- 
ciation of self, the truthfulness, purity, modesty, charity, guile- 
lessness, which cannot long be unnoticed by those around 
him, and which lay firm hold upon their hearts. But to be 
great, to fill a very large space in the world's eye, during a 
man's few brief years upon earth, he must throw modesty and 
unobtrusiveness overboard ; he must be grasping, aggressive, 
discreetly greedy of praise, covetous of a large share of honor, 
judiciously envious ; he must know how to undermine trouble- 
some rivals without being found out, and to help useful friends 
without being supplanted. Heartily agreeing with Coleridge, 
that where distinction and affection have been won coincident- 
ly, there must be the epicene element in their winner, I venture 
to doubt, whether man's affection is ever won by the greatest ; 
or, in other words, whether in the greatest any of the woman 
is to be found. It is the nature of man to love woman ; and 
thus if A., being a man, love B., who is also man, it has al- 
ways seemed to me, that in proportion to the womanly quali- 
ties of B. (wisely interspersed, of course, with the best manly 
qualities) will be the love which A. bears him. The up- 
right, earnest, energetic men, in whom there is little or no 
womanliness — such men as the incomparably drawn character 



314 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

of Tom, in "The Mill on the Floss" — win confidence, admira- 
tion, esteem ; but from their brother-man thej win little love. 
Be this as it may, that there was a large streak of the woman 
both in Washington and Lee admits of no doubt. The men 
who are brave from tenderness, are braver than the men who 
are brave from pride. But the men who, to encourage or 
spare others, are gratuitously brave, are not selfish enqugh to 
be great. The calm judgment of posterity, especially if as- 
sisted by the pen of Mr. Carlisle (who is said to hold that 
Washington stands too high, and who, if I am rightly inform- 
ed, contemplates lowering his pedestal), will, I think, reverse 
the verdict of Mr. Everett's well-known lecture, and will 
pronounce that Washington was not greater than Peter, or 
Frederic, or Marlborough, as Mr. Everett contends, but was 
simply more estimable. 

The exceeding lovableness of Lee became more patent as 
your consciousness that, as a politician, he lacked vigor aud self- 
assertion became more irresistible. This lovableness was based 
on a never-tiring unselfishness, a contagious endurance of hard- 
ship and danger, a shrinking modesty, an unbounded tender- 
ness. The child and the young girl, who had never seen him 
before, ran to him instinctively, as to a friend. His look spoke 
of honesty, directness, kindliness, courage — his smile was irre- 
sistibly winning. But the stufi" which made Cromwell, ISTapo- 
leon, William the Silent, greater as politicians than as sol- 
diers, was lacking in Lee. All that there was of true and 
brave in the people whom he so nearly made into a nation, 
called on him, by signs that he who ran might have read, to 
put Congress aside, to control the press, to be Dictator, indeed ; 
and yet he would not ! Nevertheless, in the belief that there is 
no more powerful stimulant to a noble ambition than the study 
of such a character as Lee's, I desire to throw my stone upon 
the cairn by gathering together a few notes, for the general 
accuracy of which I can entirely vouch, exhibiting the main 
features of those eventful six days which intervened between 
the evacuation of the Confederate lines around Petersburg 
and Richmond, on the night of April 2d, and the surrender 
of Lee's army, on the morning of April 9tli. 

In order rightly to understand these six days, it should be 
premised that the Federal cavalry, massed under General 



APPENDIX. 315 

Sheridan, numbering about fifteen thousand sabres, splendidly- 
equipped, and converted by their able commander into a body 
of military horsemen upon whom an Austrian or French 
sohreur might have looked without disdain, moved south- 
wards down the valley of Virginia between the 1st and 10th of 
March, and encountered a scratch Confederate army, of about 
three thousand men under General Early, at Waynesboro'. 
General Early, distrustful of his men, who were equally dis- 
trustful of him, planted them with their backs to a deep river, 
in order to make retreat impossible. The result is easily fore- 
seen. General Sheridan bagged two-thirds of his enemy's 
force, and most of his enemy's artillery. In the previous sum- 
mer I remember that, as General Early kept losing gun after 
gun, great efforts were made to resupply his losses by sending 
up fresh guns from Richmond. Upon one of these guns some 
wag of a Confederate soldier had chalked, " General Sheridan, 
care of General Early." The transfer was probably efiected at 
Waynesboro'. Sweeping rapidly onwards towards the James 
River, between Richmond and Lynchburg, Sheridan found 
himself confronted by a swollen and impassable stream. He 
fell back, rounded the left wing of Lee's army, crossed the 
Pamunkey River at the White House (where he recruited his 
strength by picking up twelve hundred fi-esh horses which 
awaited him there), and upon the 25th of March joined Gen- 
eral Grant in the lines before Petersburg. To Sheridan's un- 
tiring and sagacious activity in the subsequent operations, 
more than to the agency of any other man, is due the com- 
pleteness of the Federal triumph — the seemingly inexplicable 
collapse of the Confederacy. 

It was not long before Grant's accession of strength was felt 
by Lee. Upon the evening of Saturday, April 1st, General 
Longstreet, who had long defended Richmond, by command- 
ing the Confederate forces to the north of James River, re- 
ceived information from Lee that Grant had detached Sheri- 
dan's cavalry and two corps of infantry (about twenty-five 
thousand men in all) to act against the Southside Railroad. 
Before communicating with Longstreet, Lee had dispatched 
Pickett's and Bushrod Johnson's divisions, Wise's and Ran- 
^om's brigades, Huger's battalion of artillery, and Fitzhugh 
Lee's division of cavalry (in all about seventeen thousand men), 



316 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

to meet the attack with which the Southside Railroad was 
menaced. But in sending away these seventeen thousand 
men, Lee had so weakened his lines before Petersburg, that 
there was but one Confederate left to every fifty yards. Un- 
der these circumstances, Lee called upon Longstreet for men. 
But at dawn, upon the 2d of April, before Longstreet had 
had time to obey Lee's orders. Grant descried from his wooden 
tower of observation the weakness of the Confederate lines. 
Immediately he threw a very heavy column, consisting, I be- 
lieve, chiefly of Gibbon's corps, upon the weakest spot. The 
Federals carried, with very slight loss, the outer line, thinly 
held by Heth's division of Confederates, and bulged inwards 
until they struck two of the detached forts, whereof a string 
or system ran behind the whole length of the Confederate 
outer works. These two detached forts, which were of course 
designed to cover each other, were named Forts Gregg and 
Alexander. The officer in command of Fort Alexander, which 
was furthest away from the on-coming Federals, deemed it 
more important to save his guns than to try and help Fort 
Gregg. Receiving no assistance from its twin brother. Fort 
Gregg, manned by Harris's Mississippi brigade, numbering 
two hundred and fifty undaunted men, breasted intrepidly the 
tide of its multitudinous assailants. Five times Gibbon's corps 
surged up and around the work — five times, with dreadful 
carnage, they were driven back. I am told that it was subse- 
quently admitted by General Gibbon, that in carrying Fort 
Gregg he lost from five hundred to six hundred men ; or in 
other words, that each Mississippian inside the works struck 
down at least two assailants. When at last the work was car- 
ried, there remained out of its two hundred and fifty defenders 
but thirty survivors. Li those nine memorable April days 
there was no episode more glorious to the Confederate arms 
than the heroic self-immolation of the Mississippians in Fort 
Gregg to gain time for their comrades. 

Fort Gregg fell about seven o'clock in the morning of the 
2d. After a delay of two or three hours, the Federals swept 
onwards in the direction of Petersburg, taking the Confederate 
lines en revers. At this moment, Longstreet, accompanied by 
Benning's brigade of Field's division, about one hundred and 
seventy bayonets strong, met the on-pouring flood, and checked 



APPENDIX. 317 

it long enough to enable fresh troops to hurry up in his rear, 
and to form a fresh line in front of Petersburg. Simultane- 
ously, in an attempt of Heth's division to re-establish their 
lines, General A. P. Hill (who commanded the corps to which 
Heth's division belonged) lost a life which for nearly four 
years he had unflinchingly exposed in a hundred of his country's 
battles. About the same moment was dispatched the mem- 
orable telegram which surprised President Davis in church, 
and announced that the last day of that heroic resistance 
which had made Eichmond the most notable of beleaguered 
cities had at length arrived. The delay purchased by the ob- 
stinate defence of Fort Gregg, and by Longstreet's bold hand- 
ling of Benniug's brigade, saved Petersburg until the tobacco 
and cotton stored in the filthy little town could be burnt, and 
until leisurely preparation for its evacuation could be made. 
It is remarkable that no further onslaught was made by the 
Federals throughout the day or during the evening, although 
the flames springing up in many parts of the town must have 
told their own tale. At nightfall, on the 2d, all the Confeder- 
ate troops, about four thousand strong, which remained under 
the command of General Ewell, to the north of James Piver, 
fell back from their lines, and passed through the bewildered 
streets of Richmond, traversing before daybreak the bridges 
over the James River, which were so soon to be given to the 
flames, and pushing in the direction of Amelia Court-house. 

About ten, on the night of the same 2d, the Confederate 
troops also commenced leaving Petersburg, their retreat be- 
ing covered by Field's division under Longstreet. Pursuit 
there was none. It is probable that already Grant was bend- 
ing all his energies to get round, and cut oif Lee's retreat. 
The Petersburg section of the Confederate troops, full of vigor 
and elan^ crossed to the north of the Appomattox River on a 
pontoon bridge four or five miles from Petersburg, and made 
sixteen miles during their first night of retreat. It would be 
difficult to conceive any thing brighter or more hopeful than 
the tone of General Lee's spirits on the morning ot the 3d. 
" I have got my army safe out of its breastworks," he said, 
" and, in order to follow me, my enemy must abandon his 
lines, and can derive no further benefit from his railroads, or 
the James River." There can be little doubt that Lee's design 



318 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

■was to recruit his army with rations, which he hoped to find 
in abundance at Amelia Court-house, and to fall in detail upon 
the Federals, who, breaking up into bodies of one or two army 
corps, were scattering all over the country with a view to a 
vigorous pursuit. Two days' rations at Amelia Court-house 
for forty thousand men would possibly have made a great dif- 
ference in the immediate, though, as I believe, none in the ul- 
timate, history of the continent of North America. 

There is little satisfaction in dwelling in detail upon the five 
subsequent days, for which a parallel must be sought on the 
banks of the Beresina, or in other similar passages of military 
anguish. It is hardly necessary to state, that at Amelia Court- 
house Lee found not a ration. I shall not pause now to distrib- 
ute blame, or to investigate who was at fault. All that I 
have to state is, that the fault was not Lee's, whose orders on 
this subject, for a fortnight past, had been urgent and precise. 
It became necessary for Lee to break nearly half his army up 
into foraging parties, to get food. The country through which 
he was passing was a tract of straggling woods and pine bar- 
rens, with occasional little patches of clearings. The foraging 
parties had to go so far a-field in quest of food that they were 
taken prisoners by wholesale. In the face of such suftering 
as they left behind, it cannot be wondered if some of the poor 
fellows courted capture. Those foragers who returned to Lee 
brought little or nothing with them. The sufi'ering of the men 
from the pangs of hunger has not been approached in the mil- 
itary annals of the last fifty years. But the sufi'ering of the 
mules and horses must have been even keener ; for the men 
assuaged their craving by plucking the buds and twigs of 
trees just shooting in the early spring, whereas the grass had 
not yet started from its winter sleep, and food for the unhap- 
py quadrupeds there was none. As early as the morning of 
the 4th, Lee sent ofi" half his artillery towards the railroad, to 
relieve the famished hoi-ses. This artillery making slow prog- 
ress, thanks to the exhaustion of the horses, was captured by 
the Federals on the 8th, but not until Colonel Lindsay Walker 
had buried many of his guns, which were of course subse- 
quently exhumed (seventy of them at one haul) by their cap- 
tors. 

It is easy to see that the locomotion of an army in such a 



APPENDIX. 319 

plight must have been slow and slower. The retreat was con- 
ducted in the following fashion : About midnight the Confed- 
erates slipped out of the hasty fieldworks which they had 
thrown up and held during the previous day, and fell back 
until ten or eleven o'clock the next morning. They then halt- 
ed, and immediately threw up earthworks for protection dur- 
ing the day. It was not long before the wolves were again on 
their heels, and from their earthworks the Confederates ex- 
changed a heavy fire with their pursuers throughout the day. 
Delayed by the necessity of guarding an ammunition train of 
from thirty-five to forty miles in length, enfeebled by hunger 
and sleeplessness, the retreating army was able to make 
only ten miles each night. This delay enabled the active 
Sheridan to get ahead with his cavalry, and to destroy the 
depots of provisions along the railroad between Burksville (fifty 
miles South of Kichmond) and Danville. Upon the 5th, many 
of the mules and horses ceased to struggle. It became necessary 
to burn hundreds of wagons. At intervals the enemy's cavalry 
dashed in and struck the interminable ammunition train here or 
there, capturing and burning dozens upon dozens of wagons. 
Towards evening of the 5th, and all day long upon the 6th, 
hundreds of men dropjDed from exhaustion, and thousands let 
fall their muskets from inability to carry them any further. 
The scenes of the 5th, 6th, Yth, and 8th were of a nature which 
can be apprehended in its vivid reality only by men who are 
thoroughly familiar with the harrowing details of war. Be- 
hind and on either flank a ubiquitous and increasingly ad- 
venturous enemy — every mud-hole and every rise in the road 
choked with blazing wagons — the air filled with the deafening 
reports of ammunition exploding, and shells bursting when 
touched by the flames — dense columns of smoke ascending to 
heaven from the burning and exploding vehicles — exhausted 
men, worn-out mules and horses, lying down side by side — 
gaunt famine glaring hopelessly from sunken, lack-lustre eyes 
— dead mules, dead horses, dead men everywhere — death, many 
times welcomed as God's blessing in disguise — who can wonder 
if many hearts, tried in the fiery furnace of four unparalleled 
years, and never hitherto found wanting, should have quailed in 
presence of starvation, fatigue, sleeplessness, misery, uniuter- 
mitted for five or six days, and culminating in hopelessness ? 



320 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAK. 

Yet there were not wanting occasional episodes which re- 
called something of the old pride of former memories, and re- 
minded men that this hnnted, famishing crowd was still the 
same army which had won two Bull Runs, which had twice 
(in pursuit of a fatal policy) trodden its enemy's soil, and had 
written Fredericskburg, Chancellorsville, and a dozen other 
gloijous names upon its banners. On the 6th, a large body of 
Federal cavalry, having got ahead of Lee's army, and occu- 
pied Kice's station, was attacked by some Confederate horse, 
under General Rosser, who drove them off, capturing six hun- 
dred and eighty prisoners. On the Tth, a heavy attack was 
made upon Mahone's division ; and the prowess of this active 
Confederate general, so frequently exhibited during the last 
twelve months of the war, was maintained to the end, inas- 
much as a Federal brigade, getting entangled in a ravine, was 
surrounded by Mahone's men, and literally disappeared. On 
the evening of the Tth, General Gregg, with six or seven 
thousand Federal cavalry, made a desperate effort to capture 
all the wagon-trains. He was gallantly met by two thousand 
horsemen, under Fitzhugh Lee, and defeated. Gregg himself 
was captured. Throughout these gloomy days, as an offset to 
the countless Confederates captured, while foraging, by the 
Federals, numerous Federal prisoners were taken by the Con- 
federates, and became participants of a hunger and suffering 
of which they had no previous conception. I may as well 
mention now, that as the surrender became more inevitable, 
Generals Fitzhugh Lee and Rosser, with about two thousand 
Confederate cavalry, tacitly determined not to be included in 
it, and started off towards Lynchburg. On their road, they 
fell in with a Federal supply-train, and burned eight hundred 
and sixty wagons. The scanty and partial rations which, 
after the surrender, were issued on the night of the 9th to the 
starving Confederates by their captors, were apologized for by 
the Federals, on the ground of the destruction of these eight 
liundred and sixty wagons by Fitzhugh Lee. 

The reader will have gathered, that when Lee found his 
depots along the Danville road destroyed by Sheridan, he had 
no alternative but to make for Lynchburg. He still hoped 
to get rations, and to turn suddenly upon Grant, whose army 
was dispersed into many columns. The fatigue of the pursuit, 



APPENDIX. 321 

thongli unaggravateJ by fainine, was beginning to tell upon 
the pursuers. But, in pressing for Lynchburg, Lee found 
himself in a dangerous predicament. He was on a strip of 
land not more than seven or eight miles broad, between the 
James and Appomattox rivers. On the afternoon of the 
7th, Lee's situation seemed so unpromising, that Grant, for the 
first time, sent to propose surrender. Lee at once replied tliat 
his circumstances did not seem to him such as to juslify his 
entertaining such a proposal. On the morning of tli(> 8th, 
Grant renewed his solicitations. Lee did not decline, buc de- 
bated the matter, calling a council of war in the evening. No 
determination was arrived at on the 8th, and at midnight, the 
usual dreary retreat was resumed. The springs of energy and 
will, unstrung by long want of food, had run down in the men, 
like the machinery of a broken clock. Hitherto, the retreat had 
been covered alternately by Longstreet and Gordon ; but now, 
the Federal force, which had got ahead of Lee, and was ob- 
structing his retreat, had become so considerable, that Gordon 
was thrown out with two thousand- men in front, while the 
"old bulldog," Longstreet, whose pluck neither liunger, nor 
fatigue, nor depression could abate or subdue, still covered tlie 
rear. At daybreak, on the 9th, a courier from Gordon an- 
nounced to Lee, that a large body of Federal cavalry (in other 
words, Sheridan's army) was across the road at Appomattox 
Court-house. At the same moment, a heavy force of intanrry, 
under Grant, was pushing Longstreet vigorously in the rear. 
Between Gordon and Longstreet were tlie remaining wagons, 
and, climbing to them, thousands of un:irmed and famished 
stragglers, too weak to carry their muskets. Lee sent orders 
to Gordon to cut his way through, coute qxt'll coute. Presenlly 
came another courier from Gordon, announcing that the en- 
emy was driving him back. Lee had, at this moment, less 
than eight thousand men with muskets in their hands. The 
fatal moment had indisputablj' come Hastily donning his 
best uniform, and buckling on his sword, which it was never 
his fashion to wear. General Lee turned sadly to the rear, to 
seek the linal interview with General Grant. 

There is no passage of history in this heai-t-breaking \v:u- 
which will, for years to come, be more honorably mentioned 
and gratefully remembered than the demeanor, on the 9th of 

21 



322 THE LAST TEAK OF THE WAR. 

April, 1865, of General Grant towards General Lee. I do not so 
much allude to the facility with which honorable terms were 
accorded to the Confederates, as to the bearing of General 
Grant, and of the officers about him, towards General Lee. 
The interview was brief. Three commissioners, upon either 
side, were immediately appointed. The ao;reement to which 
tliese six commissioners acceded was as follows : 

" Appomattox Coukt-house, Va., April 10, 1865. 

" Agreement entered into this day, in regard to the surrender of the army of 
Northern Virginia to the United States authoiities. 

" First. The troops shall march by brigades and detachments to a designated 
point ; stack their arms, deposit their flags, sabres, pistols, etc., and from thence 
march to their homes, under charge of their officers, superintended by their re- 
spective division and corps commanders, officers retaining their side-arms and 
the authorized number of private horses. 

" Second. All public horses, and public property of all kinds, to be turned 
over to staff-officers, to be designated by the United States authorities. 

" Third. Such transportation as may be agreed upon as necessary for the 
transportation of the private baggage of officers will be allowed to accompany 
the officers, to be turned over^ at the end of the triji, to the nearest United 
States quartermaster, receipts being taken for the same. 

"Fourth. Couriers and mounted men of the artillery and cavalry, whose 
horses are their own private property, will be allowed to retain them. 

" Fifth. The surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia shall be construed 
to include all the forces operating with that army on the 8th instant, the date 
of the commencement of the negotiations for surrender, except such bodies of 
cavalry as actually made their escape previous to the surrender, and except, 
also, such pieces of artillery as were more than twenty miles from Appomattox 
Gourt- house at the time of surrender on the 9th instant. 

"(Signed) John Gibbon, Major-General Volunteers. 

Chap.les Gf.iffin, Brevet Major-General U. S. Vols. 

W. Merritt, Brevet Major-General. 

J. LoNGSTEEET, Lieutenant-General. 

J. B. Gibbon, Major-General. 

W. N. Pendleton, Brig.-Gen. and Chief of Artillery." 

In the mean time, immediately that General Lee was seen 
riding to the rear, dressed more gayly than usual, and begirt 
with his sword, the rumor of imminent surrender flew like 
wildfire through the Confederates. It might be imagined, 
.that an army which had drawn its last regular rations on the 
,1st of April, and harassed incessantly by night and day, had 
■ been marching and fighting until the morning of the 9th, 
'■would have welcomed anv thins'like a termination of its suflfer- 



APPENDIX. 323 

ings, let it come in what form it might. Let those who idly 
imagine that the tiner feelings are the prerogative of what are 
called the " upper classes," learn from this, and siraihar scenes, 
to appreciate "common men." As the great Confederate cap- 
tain rode back from his interview with General Grant, the 
news of the surrender acquired shape and consistency, and 
could no longer be denied. The effect on the worn and bat- 
tered troops — some of whom had fought since April, 1861, and 
(sparse survivors of hecatombs of fallen comrades) had passed 
unscathed through such hurricanes of shot as, within four years, 
no other men had ever experienced — passes mortal descrip- 
tion. "Whole lines of battle rushed up to their beloved old. 
chief, and, choking with emotion, broke ranks and struggled 
with each other to wring him once more by the hand. Men 
who had fought throughout the war, and knew what the agony 
and humiliation of that moment must be to him, strove, with 
a refinement of unselfishness and tenderness which he alone 
could fnlly appreciate, to lighten his burden and mitigate his 
pain. With tears pouring down both cheeks, General Lee at 
length commanded voice enough to say : " Men, we have 
fought through the war together. I have done the best that I 
could for you." Not an eye that looked on that scene was 
dry. Nor was this the emotion of sickly sentimentalists, but 
of rough and rugged men, familiar with hardship, danger, and 
death in a thousand shapes, mastered by sympathy and feeling 
for another, which they had never experienced on their own 
account. I know of no other passage of military history so 
touching, unless, in spite of the melodramatic coloring which 
French historians have loved to shed over the scene, it can 
be found in the Aclieux de Fontainchleau. 

It remains for me briefly to notice the last parade of an 
army whereof the exploits will be read with pride, so long as 
the English tongue is spoken. In pursuance of an arrange- 
ment of the six commissioners, the Confederate army marched 
by divisions, on the morning of April the 12th, to a spot in 
the neighborhood of Appomattox Court-house, where they 
stacked arms and deposited accoutrements. Upon this solemn 
occasion, Major-General Gibbon represented the United States 
authorities. With the same conspicuous and exalted delicacy 
which he had exhibited throughout these closing scenes. Gen- 



324 THE LAST YEAR OF THK WAR, 

f 

eral Grant was not again visible after his final interview with 
General Lee. About seven thousand eight hundred Confed- 
erates marched up, with muskets in their hands, and they 
were followed by about eighteen thousand unarmed stragglers, 
wiio claimed to be included in the capitulation. Each Confed- 
erate soldier was furnished with a printed form of parol, which 
was filled up for him by his own officers, and a duplicate 
handed to a designated Federal officer. By the evening of the 
]2th, the paroles were generally distributed, and the disband- 
ed men began to scatter through the country. Hardly one of 
them had a farthing of money. Some of them had from one 
thousand five hundred to two thousand miles to travel, over a 
countiy of which the scanty railroads were utterly annihilated. 
Many an interesting diary of the adventures of these indi- 
viduals, as they journeyed from Eastern Yirginia to Western 
Texas, or possibly to Mexico, may well have been written. 
It is to be hoped that one or two such narratives will yet be 
given to the world. 

Shortly after noon, on the 12th, General Lee, escorted by a 
guard of honor of Federal cavalry, mounted his horse, as a sol- 
dier for the last time, and started for the city of Kichmond. 
On his road, he arrived about evening at the headquarters of his 
*' old war-horse," General Longstreet ; and the last and sad- 
dest of their many interviews took place. There are scenes 
which are too sacred and affecting for description, even 
though the pen were guided by a Macaulay or a Hoffmann. 
If ever there were two genuine, simple-minded men upon 
earth, to whom any thing melodramatic or theatrical is utterly 
abhorrent, they are the men of whom I am now writing. I 
close this brief chronicle with the remark that, in proportion 
to the reader's estimate of the sustained heroism wath which 
Lee and Longstreet, for four years, bore up and stood erect 
under such a burden as never yet was laid upon man, will be 
his appreciation of the circumstances and emotions under 
which their parting interview took place. 



OFFICIAL REPORTS. 



KEPORT OF GENERAL LONGSTREET. 

Headquarters near Winchester, Va., Oct. 10, 1863. 

Brigadier-General R. H. Chilton, 

Adjutant and Inspector-General : 

General — I have the honor to submit the following report 
of the operations of my command in the late campaign : 

In obedience to the orders of the commanding general, the 
command marched from Gordonsville on the 16tli August, 
crossing the Rapidan on the 20th, at Raccoon Ford. 

The next day, at Kelly's Ford, I received orders to move up 
the Rappahannock to Rappahannock Station. As we were 
withdrawing from Kelly's Ford, the enemy crossed the river 
and made an attack upon the rear brigade (Featherston's) 
under the command of Colonel Posey. After a sharp skir- 
mish, Colonel Posey drove him back with considerable loss. 

Arriving at Rappahannock Station, General Hood, with his 
own and Whiting's brigade, was detached to relieve a portion 
of General Jackson's command at Freeman's Ford. About 
the moment tiiat General Hood reached this ford, the enemy 
crossed in considerable force, and made an attack upon the 
commands of Brigadier-Generals Trimble and Hood. They, 
however, drove him back across tlie river in much confusion 
and with heavy loss. Meanwhile, I had ordered Colonel Wal- 
ton to place his batteries in position at Rappahannock Station, 
and to drive the enemy from his positions on both sides of the 
river. 

The batteries were opened at sunrise on the 23d, and a 
severe cannonade continued for several hours. In about two 
Ijours, however, the enemy was driven across the river, aban- 



326 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAE. 

doning his tete-de-pont. The brigades of Brigadier-Generals 
Evans and D. R. Jones, the latter under Colonel G. T. Ander- 
son, moved forward to occupy this position. It was found 
untenable, however, being exposed to a cross-fire of artillery 
from the other bank. The troops were, therefore, partially 
withdrawn, and Colonel S. D. Lee was ordered to select posi- 
tions for his batteries, and joined in the combat. The enemy's 
position was soon rendered too warm for him, and he took ad- 
vantage of a severe rain-storm to retreat in haste, after firing 
the bridge and the private dwellings in its vicinity. Colonel 
Walton deserves much credit for skill in the management of 
his batteries, and Colonel Lee got into position in time for 
some good practice. 

The next day, August 24th, the command, continuing the 
march up the Rappahannock, crossed Hazel River, and biv- 
ouacked at Jefferson ton. 

On the 25th we relieved a portion of General Jackson's 
command at Waterloo Bridge. There was more or less skir- 
mishing at this point until the afternoon of the 26th, when the 
march was resumed, crossing the Rappahannock at Hinson's 
Mill Ford, six miles above Waterloo. A dash of several 
squadrons of Federal cavalry into Salem, in front of us, on 
the 27th, delayed our march about an hour. Not having 
cavalry, I was unable to ascertain the meaning of this move- 
ment, hence the delay. This cavalry retired, and the march 
was resumed, resting for the night at White Plains. The head 
of my column reached Thoroughfare Gap about three o'clock 
p. M. On the 28th a small party of infantry was sent into the 
mountains to reconnoitre. Passing through the Gap, Colonel 
Beck, of the Ninth Georgia regiment, met the enemy ; but 
was obliged to retire before a greatly superior force. The 
enemy held a strong position on the opposite gorge, and suc- 
ceeded in getting his sharp-shooters in position on the moun- 
tain. Brigadier-General D. R. Jones advanced two of his 
brigades rapidly, and soon drove the enemy from his position 
on the mountain. Brigadier-General Hood, with his own and 
General Whiting's bi'igade, was ordered, by a footpath over 
the mountain, to turn the enemy's right ; and Brigadier- 
General Wilcox, with his own and Brigadier-Generals Feather- 
ston's and Pryor's brigades, was ordered through Hopewell 



APPENDIX. 327 

Gap, three miles to our left, to turn the right and attack the 
enemy in rear. The enemy made his attack upon Jones, how- 
ever, before these troops could get into their position, and, 
after being repulsed with severe loss, commenced his retreat 
just before night. In this affair, the conduct of the First 
Georgia regulars, under Major Walker, was dashing and 
gallant. 

Early on the 29th the columns were united, and the ad- 
vance, to join General Jackson, was resumed. The noise of 
battle was heard before we reached Gainesville. The march 
was quickened to the extent of our capacity. The excitement 
of battle seemed to give new life and strength to our jaded 
men, and the head of my column soon reached a position in 
rear of the enemy's left flank, and within easy cannon-shot. 
On approaching the field, some of Brigadier-General Hood's 
batteries were ordered into position, and his division was de- 
ployed on the right and left of the turnpike, at right-angles 
with it, and supported by Brigadier-General Evans' brigade. 
Before these batteries could open, the enemy discovered our 
movements and withdrew his left. Another battery (Captain 
Stribling's) was 'placed upon a commanding position to my 
right, which played upon the rear of the enemy's left, and 
drove him entirely from that part of the field. He changed 
his front rapidly, so as to meet the advance of Hood and 
Evans. 

Three brigades, under General Wilcox, were thrown forward 
to the support of the left, and three others, under General 
Kemper, to the support of the right of these commands. 
General D. R. Jones' division was placed upon the Manassas 
Gap Railroad, to the right and in echelon with regard to the 
three last brigades. Colonel Walton placed his batteries in a 
commanding position between my line and that of General 
Jackson, and engaged the enemy for several hours in a severe 
and successful artillery duel. At a late hour in the day, 
Major-General Stuart reported the approach of the enemy in 
heavy columns against mj extreme right. I withdrew Gen- 
eral Wilcox, with his three brigades, from the left, and placed 
his command in j)osition to support Jones in case of an attack 
against my right. After some few shots, the enemy withdrew 
his forces, moving them around towards his front, and, about 



328 THE LAST YEAK OF THE WAK. 

four o'clock in the afternoon, began to press forward against 
General Jackson's position. Wilcox's brigades were moved 
back to their former position, and Hood's two brigades, sup- 
ported bj Evans, were quickh^ pressed forward to the attack. 
At tlie same time, Wilcox's three brigades njade a like ad- 
vance, as also Ilunton's brigade, of Kemper's command. 

These movements were executed with ciMnmendable zeal 
and ability. Hood, supported by Evans, niade a gallant 
attack, driving the enemy back till nine o'clock at night. Ono 
piece of artillery, several regimental standards, and a number 
of prisoners were taken. The enemy's entire force was found 
to be massed directly in my front, and in so strong a position 
that it was not deemed advisable to move on against his im- 
mediate front; so the troops were quietly withdrawn at ono 
o'clock the following morning. The wheels of the captured 
piece were cut down, and it was left on the ground. The 
enemy seized that opportunity to claim a victory, and the 
Federal commander was so impudent as to dispatch to his 
Govei-nmcnt, bj^ telegraph, tidings to that effect. After with- 
drawing from the attack, n)y troops were placed in tiie line 
first occupied, and in the original order. 

During the day. Colonel S. D. Lee, with his reserve artillery, 
was })laced in the position occupied the day previous by Col- 
onel Walton, and engaged the enemy in a very severe artillery 
combat. The result was, as the day previous, a success. At 
half-past three o'clock in the afternoon, I rode to the front for 
tlie purpose of completing arrangements for making a diver- 
sion in favor of a flank movement, then under contemjjlation. 
Just after reaching my front line, I received a message for 
re-enforcements for General Jackson, who was said to be 
severely pressed. From an eminence near by, one portion of 
the enemy's masses attacking General Jackson were immedi- 
ately within my view, and in easy range of batteries in that 
position. It gave me an advantage tliat I had not expected 
to have, and I made haste to use it. Two batteries were 
ordered for the purpose, and one placed in position immedi- 
ately and opened. Just as this fire began, I received a mes- 
sage from the commanding general, informing me of General 
Jackson's condition and his wants. As it was evident that the 
attack against General Jackson could not be continued ten 



APPENDIX. 329 

minutes under the fire of these batteries, I made no movement 
with my troops. Before the second battery could be placed 
in position, the enemy began to retire, and, in less tlian ten 
minutes, tlie ranks were broken, and that portion of his arm}" 
put to flight. A fair opportunity was offered me, and the in- 
tended diversion was changed into an attack. My whole line 
was rushed forward at a charge The troops sprang to their 
work, and moved forward with all the steadiness and firmness 
that characterize war-worn veterans. The batteries continu- 
ing their play upon the confused masses, completed the work 
of this portion of the enemy's line, and my attack was, there- 
fore, made against the forces in my front. The order for the 
advance had scarcely been given, when I received a message 
from the connuanding general, anticipating some such emer- 
gency, and ordering the move which was then going on, at 
the same time offering me Major-General Anderson's division. 
The commanding general soon joined me, and, a few moments 
after, Major-General Anderson arrived with his division. 
The attack was led b}' Hood's brigade, closely supported by 
Evans. These were rapidly re-enforced by Anderson's division 
from the rear, Kemper's three brigades, and D. R. Jones' 
division from the rif^ht, and Wilcox's bris^ade from the left. 
The brigades of Brigadier-Generals Featherston and Pi-yor 
became detached, and opei'ated with a portion of General 
Jackson's command. The attacking columns moved steadily 
forward, driving the enemy from his different positions as 
rapidly as he took them. My batteries were thrown forward 
from point to point, following the movements of the general 
line. These, however, were somewhat detained by an enfilade 
fire from a battery on my left. This threw more than its 
proper share of fighting upon the infantry, retarded our rapid 
progress, and enabled the enemy to escape with many of his 
batteries, which should have fallen into our hands. The battle 
continued imtil ten o'clock at night, when utter darkness put 
a stop to our progress. The enemy made his escape across 
Bull Run before daylight. Three batteries, a lai'ge number of 
prisoners, many stands of regimental colors, and twelve thou- 
sand stands of arms, besides some wagons, ambulances, etc., 
were taken. 

The next day, like the day after the first battle of Manassas 



330 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAE. 

Plains, was stormy and excessively disagreeable. Orders were 
given early in the day for caring for the wounded, burying 
the dead, and collecting arms and other supplies. 

About noon. General Pryor, with his brigade, was thrown 
across Bull Run, to occupy the heights between that and Cub 
Run, and, at two o'clock in the afternoon, the balance of the 
command marched to cross Bull Run at Sudley Ford. Cross- 
ing the run on the following day, the command marched for 
Chantilly, via the Little River turnpike. The enemy was re 
ported in position in our front, as we reached Chantilly, and 
he made an attack upon General Jackson before my troops 
arrived. He was repulsed, however, before my re-enforcements 
got up, and disappeared during the night. 

On the 2d of September the command marched via Drains- 
ville, Leesburg, and across the Potomac, at White's Ford, to 
Frederick City, Maryland, arriving there on the Tth. I moved 
from Frederick for Hagerstowu on the 10th, and reached 
there, with part of my command, on the 11th, sending six 
brigades, under Major-Gen eral Anderson, to co-operate with 
Major-General McLaws in the assault upon Maryland Heights 
and Harper's Ferry. During the operations against this gar- 
rison, the approach of a large army from "Washington City for 
its relief was reported. We were obliged to make a forced 
march in order to reach Boonsboro' Pass to assist Major- 
General D. H. Hill's division in holding this army in check, 
so as to give time for the reduction of Harper's Ferry. I 
reached Boonsboro' about three o'clock in the afternoon, and, 
upon ascending the mountain, found General Hill heavily en- 
gaged. My troops were hurried to his assistance as rapidly 
as their exhausted condition would admit of. The brigades 
of Brigadier-General Evans, Pickett (under Garnett), Kemper, 
and Jenkins (under Colonel Walker), were extended along the 
mountain to our left. Brigadier-General Hood, with his own 
and Whiting's brigade (under Colonel Law), Drayton's, and 
D. R. Jones' (under Colonel G. T. Anderson), were extended 
to the right. Major-General Hill had ab'eady placed such 
batteries in position as he could find ground for, except one 
position on the extreme left. It was my intention to have 
placed a battery in this position, but I was so much occupied 
in front, that I could find no time to do so before nightfall. 



APPENDIX. 331 

We succeeded in repulsing the repeated and powerful at- 
tacks of the enemy, and in holding our position till night put 
an end to the battle. It was short, but very fierce. Some of 
our most gallant officers and men fell in this struggle, among 
them the brave Colonel J. B. Strange, of the Nineteenth Vir- 
ginia regiment. 

Had tlie command reached the mountain pass in time to 
have gotten into position before the attack was made, I be- 
lieve that the direct assaults of the enemy could have been 
repulsed with comparative ease. Hurried into action, how- 
ever, we arrived at our position more exhausted than the 
enemy. It became manifest that our forces were not suffi- 
cient to resist the renewed attacks of the entire army of Gen- 
eral McClellan. He would require but little time to turn 
either flank, and our command must then be at his mercy. In 
view of this, the commanding general ordered the withdrawal 
of our troops to the village of Sharpsburg. This position was 
regarded as a strong defensive one, besides being one from 
which Ave could threaten the enemy's flank or rear, in case he 
should attempt to relieve the garrison at Harper's Ferry. 

Crossing the Antietam, on the morning of the 15th, Major- 
General D. H. Hill's divison and my own command were 
placed in line of battle between the stream and the village of 
Sharpsburg. Soon after getting into position, we heard of the 
surrender of Harper's Ferry. This left the portions of the 
army engaged in the reduction of that garrison free to join us. 
After much shelling at one point and another of our line, 
which extended more than a mile on each side of Sharpsburg, 
the enemy finally attacked General Hood, on my extreme left, 
late Tuesday evening, September 16th. Hood drove him back, 
but not without severe loss, including that of Colonel Liddell, 
of the Eleventh Mississippi, an officer of great merit, modesty, 
and promise. During the night, the enemy threw his forces 
across the Antietam, in front of Hoods position, and renewed 
his attack at daylight the next morning. Hood was not 
strong enough to resist the masses thrown against him. Sev- 
eral of Major-General D. H. Hill's brigades re-enforced tlie 
position, but, even with these, our forces seemed but a handful 
when compared with the hosts thrown against us. The com- 
mands engaged the enemy, however, with great courage and 



332 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAK. 

determination, and, retiring very slowly, delayed him until 
the forces of Generals Jackson and "Walker came to our relief. 
D. R. Jones' brigade, under Colonel G. T. Anderson, came up 
about the same nioment, and, soon after this, the divisions of 
Major-Generals McLaws and R. H. Anderson. Colonel S. D. 
Lee's reserve artillery was with General Hood, and took a dis- 
tinguished part in the attack, on the evening of the 16th, and 
in delaying that of the 17th. General Jackson soon moved off 
to our left, for the purpose of tui-ning the enemy's right flank, 
and the otlier divisions, except Walker's, were distributed at 
other points of tlie line. As these movements were made, the, 
enemy again tlirew forward his masses against my left. This 
attack was met by Walker's division, two pieces of Captain 
Miller's batter}^ of the Washington Artiller}?^, and two pieces of 
Captain Bryce's battery, and was driven back in some con- 
fusion. An effort was made to pursue, but our line was too 
weak. Colonel Cooke, of the Twenty-seventh North Carolina, 
very gallantly charged with his own regiment; but, liis 
supply of ammunition being exhausted, and he being unsup- 
ported, he was obliged to return to his original position in 
the line. 

From this moment our centre was extremely weak, l)eing 
defended by but part of Walker's division, and four pieces of 
artillery, Cooke's regiment of that division being without a 
cartridge. In this condition, again the enemy's masses moved 
forward against us. Cooke stood with his empty guns, and 
waved his colors to show that his troops were in position. 
The artillery played upon their ranks with canister. Their 
lines began to hesitate, soon halted, and, after an hour and a 
half, retired. 

Another attack was quickly made, a little to the right of 
the last. Captain Miller, turning his pieces upon these lines, 
and playing upon them with ronnd shot (over the heads of 
R. li. Auderson's men), checked the advance; and Anderson's 
division, with the ai'tillery, held the enemy in check until 
night. This attack was followed by the final assault, about 
four o'clock P.M., when the enemy crossed the bridge in front 
of Sharpsbui-g, and made his desperate attack upon my right. 
Brigadier-General Toombs held the bridge, and defended it. 
most gallantly, driving back repeated attacks, and only yielded 



ArpENDix. 833 

it after the forces brouglit against liim became overwhelming 
and threatened his flank and rear. 

The enemy was then met by Brigadier-General D. R. Jones, 
with six brigades. Pie drove back our right several times, and 
M-as himself made to I'ctire several times, badly crippled ; but 
his strong re-enforcements finally enabled him to drive in my 
right, and occupy this part of my ground. Thus advanced, 
the enemy's line was placed in such a position as to enable 
General Toombs to move his brigade directly against his flank. 
General Jones seized the opportunity, and threw Toombs down 
against the enemy's flank, drove him back, and recovered our 
lost ground. 

Two of the brigades of Major-General A. P. Hill's division 
advanced against the enemy's front, as General Toombs made 
his flank attack. 

The display of this force was of great value, and it assisted 
us in holding our position. 

The enemy took shelter behind a stone wall, and another 
line was advanced to the crest of a hill, in support of his first 
line. 

Captain Richardson's, Brown's, and Moody's batteries were 
placed in position to play upon the second line, and lK)tli lines 
were eventually driven back by these batteries. Before it 
was entirely dark, the hundred thousand men, that liad been 
threatening our destruction for twelve hours, had melted away 
into a few stragglers. 

The battle over, orders were sent around for ammunition- 
chests and cartridge-boxes to be refilled. Early on the morn- 
ing of the 18th a few sharp-shooters began to exchange shots. 
I observed that the enemy had massed his artillery on the 
opposite side of the Antietam, with a view, apparently, to 
meet an attack from us. Our ranks were too much thiimed to 
warrant a renewal of the conflict, with the chances of being 
drawn under the fire of this artillery. The eflTort to make a 
flank movement by our left, the day previous, developed the 
fact that the enemy had extended his right, so as to rest it 
upon the Potomac, and thus envelop our left flank. From our 
position, it was impossible to make any move, except a direct 
assault upon some portion of the enemy's line. I, therefore, 
took the liberty to address a note to the commanding general, 



334 THE LAST YKAR OF THE WAR. 

abont two o'clock in the afternoon, suggesting a withdrawal 
to the south side of the Potomac. Before my note reached 
him, however, he rode to my bivouac, and expressed the same 
views. Arrangements to move across the Potomac were com- 
pleted by dark. My command, moving first, crossed about 
two o'clock in the morning, and part of it was placed in posi- 
tion, in case it should be needed at the ford. The entire army 
crossed, however, without molestation ; and, as directed by 
the commanding general, I proceeded to form his line. As 
this was completed, it became evident that the enemy was not 
pursuing, except with some of his batteries and some small 
force. The various commands were then marched off to their 
points of bivouac. 

The name of every officer, non-commissioned ofiicer, and 
private, who has shared in the toils and privations of this cam- 
paign, should be mentioned. 

In one month, these troops had marched over two hundred 
miles, upon little more than half rations, and fought nine 
battles and skirmishes, killed, wounded, and captured nearly 
as many men as we had in our ranks, besides taking arms, and 
other munitions of war, in large quantities. I would that I 
could do justice to all of these gallant officers and men in this 
report. As that is impossible, I shall only mention those most 
prominently distinguished. These were: Major-General R. 
H. Anderson, on the Plains of Manassas, at Harper's Ferry, 
and at Sharpsburg, where he was wounded severely. Briga- 
dier-General D. R. Jones, at Thoroughfare Gap, Manassas 
Plains, Boonsboro', and Sharpsburg. Brigadier-General R. 
Toombs, at Manassas Plains, in his gallant defence of the 
bridge at Antietam, and in his vigorous charge against the 
enemy's flank ; he was severely wounded at the close of the 
engagement. Brigadier-General "Wilcox, at Manassas Plains, 
on the 29th and 30th of August, afterwards absent sick. 
Brigadier-General Garnett, at Boonsboro' and Sharpsburg. 
Brigadier-General Evans, on the Plains of Manassas, both on 
the 29th and 30th of August, and at Sharpsburg. Brigadier- 
General Kemper, at Manassas Plains, Boonsboro', and Sharps- 
burg. Brigadier-General Hood, and Colonels Law and Wof- 
ford, at Manassas Plains, and on the 29th and 30th of August, 
Boonsboro', and at Sharpsburg, on the 16th and 17th. Col- 



APPENDIX. 335 

onel G. T. Anderson, commanding D. K. Jones' brigade, at 
Thoroughfare Gap, Manassas Plains, Boonsboro', and Sharps- 
bnrg. Brigadier-General Malione, at Manassas Plains, wliere 
he received a severe wound. Brigadier-General R. A. Pryor, 
at Sharpsburg. Brigadier-General Jenkins, at Manassas 
Plains, on the 29th and 30th of August; on the last day 
severely wounded. Colonels Hunton, Corse, Stuart, Stevens, 
Hately (severely wounded), and Walker (commanding Jenkins' 
brigade, after the latter was wounded), at Manassas Plains, 
Boonsboro', and Sharpsburg, Colonel Posey, at Manassas 
Plains and Sharpsburg, where he commanded Featherston's 
brigade. Colonel Penning, at Manassas Plains and Sharps- 
burg. At Sharpsburg, Captain Miller, of the Washington 
Artillery, was particularly distinguished. Colonel Walton, of 
the Washington Artillery, at Rappahannock Station, Manassas 
Plains (August 29th), and Sharpsburg. Major Garnett, at 
Rappahannock Station. Lieutenant-Colonels Skinner and 
Marye, at Manassas Plains, where they were both severely 
wounded. Major Walker, at Thoroughfare Gap and Manassas 
Plains; in the latter engagement, this gallant officer was mor- 
tally wounded. 

It is with no common feeling that I recount the loss, at 
Manassas Plains, of Colonels Gadbury, Eighteenth South 
Carolina, Means, Seventeenth South Carolina, Moore, Second 
South Carolina, Glover, First South Carolina, Nelson, Seventh 
Georgia, and Lieutenant-Colonel Upton, Fifth Texas. At 
Boonsboro', Colonel J. B. Strange, Nineteenth Yiginia volun- 
teers, and Lieutenant- Colonel McLemore, Fourth Alabama ; 
and, at Sharpsburg, Colonel Liddell, Eleventh Mississippi, 
Lieutenant-Colonel Coppens, and Lieutenant-Colonel Holmes, 
Second Georgia volunteers. These valuable and gallant offi- 
cers fell in the unflinching performance of their duty, bravely 
and successfully heading their commands in the thickest of 
the fight. 

To my staff-officers, Major G. M. Sorrell, assistant adjutant- 
general, who was wounded at Sharpsburg, Lieutenant-Colonel 
P. T. Manning, chief of ordinance, Major J. W. Fairfax, 
Major Thomas Walton, who was also wounded at Sharpsburg, 
Captain Thomas Goree, and Lieutenant R. W. Blackwell, I 
am under renewed and lasting obligations. These officers, full 



336 THE LAST YEAK OF THE WAR. 

of courage, intelligence, patience, and experience, were able to 
give dii'ections to commands such as they tlionght proper, 
which were at once approved, and commanded mj admiration. 
Lieutenant-Colonel Blunt volunteered his services to me at 
Boonsboro', and was, both there and at Sharpsburg, of material 
service to me. The medical department, in charge of Surgeon 
Cullen, were active and unremitting in the care of the wounded, 
and have my thanks for their humane efforts. 

My party of couriers were zealous, active, and brave. They 
are justly entitled to praise for the manly fortitude and coura- 
geous conduct shown by them in the trying scenes of the cam- 
paign. The cavalry escort, commanded by Captain Doby, 
have my thanks for meritorious conduct and valuable aid. 
Captain Doby, Lieutenants Bonny and Matthieson, Sergeants 
Lee and Haile, and Corporals Whitaker and Sahnond, were 
distinguished in the active and fearless performance of their 
arduous duties. 

I am indebted to Colonel E.. H. Chilton, Colonel Long, 
Majors Taylor, Marshall, Venable, and Talcott, and Captains 
Mason and Johnson, of the staff of the commanding general, 
for great courtesy and kindness in assisting me on the dif- 
ferent battle-fields. 

I respectfully ask the attention of the commanding general 
to the reports of division, brigade, and other commanders, and 
approve their high encomiums of their officers and men. 

Reports of killed, wounded, and missing have already been 
forwarded. 

I remain, sir, with respect, your obedient servant, 

J. LONGSTRKET, 

Lieutenant-General Commanding. 




CEN. STERLING PRICE. 



'J.B.Kicliardson, 
Putlisher. 



APPENDIX. 337 



EEPOKTS OF LIEUTENANT-GENEEAL JACKSON. 

Headqttaiiters Second Corps, A. N. V., AprU 27, 1863. 
Brigadiek-Generai, E. H. Chilton, 

A. A. A. General, Headquarters Department, A. N. V. : 

General — I have the honor herewith to submit to )'ou a 
report of the operations of nij command from the 15th of 
August to the 5th day of September, 1862, embracing the sev- 
eral engagements of Manassas Junction, Bristoe Station, Ox 
Hill, and so much of the battle of Groveton, on the 2Sth, 29th, 
and 30th of August, as was fouglit by the troops under my 
command : 

On the 15th of August, in obedience to instructions from the 
commanding general, I left my encampment near Gordons- 
ville, and, passing Orange Courthouse, encamped in the even- 
ing near Mount Pisgah church, where I remained until the 
20tb, when, in accordance with my instructions, whilst General 
Longstreet was crossing at Raccoon Ford, I crossed the same 
river at Somerville Ford. The command encamped for the 
night near Stevensburg. My command at this time comprised 
Ewell's, A. P. Hill's, and Jackson's divisions. Ewell's was 
composed of the brigades of Generals Lawton, Early, Haja 
(Colonel Farno commanding), and Trimble, with the bat- 
teries of Bi'own, Dement, Latimer, Balthis, and D'Aquin. A. 
P. Hill's division was composed of the brigades of Generals 
Branch, Gregg, Field, Pender, Archer, and Colonel Thomas, 
with the batteries of Braxton, Latham, Crenshaw, Mcintosh, 
Davidson, and Pegram. Jackson's division, commanded by 
Brigadici'-General William B. Taliaferro, was composed of 
Windei-'s brigade (Colonel Baylor commanding), Colonel 
Campl)e]rs brigade (Major John Seddon commanding), Bi-ig- 
adier-General William B. Taliaferro's brigade (Colonel A. G. 
Taliaferro commanding), and Starke's brigade, with the bat- 
teries of Brockenbrough, Wooding, Poague, Carpenter, Caskie, 
and Eaines. Major-General Stuart, with his cavalry, co- 
operated during the expedition ; and I shall more than once 

22 ' 



838 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

have to acknowledge my obligations for the valuable and 
efficient aid which he rendered. 

Early on the morning of the 21st, the command left its en- 
campment and moved in the direction of Beverly's Ford, on 
the Eappahannock, General Taliaferro's command in the lead. 
On approaching the ford, the enemy was seen on the opposite 
bank. Batteries of that division, under the direction of Major 
Shumaker, chief of artillery, were placed in position, which, 
after a short resistance (as reported by General Taliaferro), 
silenced the enemy's guns, and dispersed his infantry. Major- 
General Stuart had crossed with a portion of his cavalry, sup- 
ported by some pieces of artillery, and, after skirmishing with 
the enemy a few hours, taking some prisoners and arms, 
returned with the information that the Federal forces were 
moving in strength upon his position, and were close at hand. 
The enemy soon appeared on the opposite bank, and an ani- 
mated firing was opened, and, to a considerable extent, kept 
up across the river for the rest of the day, between the Federal 
artillery and the batteries of Taliaferro's command. 

On the following morning (22d), the three divisions con- 
tinned their march up the bank of the Bappahannock, General 
Evvell in the advance, and crossed Hazel River, one of its 
tributaries, at Wellford's Mill, near which General Trimble 
was left with his brigade to protect the flank of our wagon- 
train from the enemy, who was moving up the north side of 
the Rappahannock, simultaneously with the advance of our 
troops on the south side. 

About twelve m., a small party surprised part of the train, 
and captured some ambulances and mules, which were, how- 
ever, soon recovered, and some prisoners taken, who gave 
information that a more considerable Federal force had crossed 
the river. 

About four p. M., General Trimble, supported by General 
Hood (who was the advance of Longstreet's command), had a 
sharp engagement with this force, in which, after gallantly 
charging and taking a number of prisoners, they drove the 
residue, with severe loss, across the river, under the protection 
of the guns of the main body of the Federal army, on the 
opp.osite side. In the mean time the command paesed Fj'ce- 
Djuji's Fold, which it found strongly guarded, and moved on 



APPENDIX. 339 

to a point opposite the Fauqnier "White Snlphnr Springs, where 
we found the bridge destroyed, and other evidence that the 
enemy was in close proximity. 

In the afternoon of the 23d, the Thirteenth Georgia, Colonel 
Douglas, Brown's and Dement's batteries of four guns each, 
and Early's brigade, crossing over, took possession of the 
springs and adjacent lieights, and taking some prisoners, and 
incurring some risk from the rain and sudden rise of the 
water, which for a few hours cut off communication with the 
main body. In this critical situation, the skill and presence 
of mind of General Early was favorably displayed. It was 
deemed advisable not to attempt a passage at that point, but 
to proceed liigher up the river. 

By dawn, on the morning of the 24-th, General Early, by 
means of a temporary bridge, which had been constructed for 
his relief, had his troops and artillery safe on the, southern 
side. 

On the 24th, there was a fierce cannonade between General 
HilTs artillery and that of the enemy across the river. In the 
mean time, General Stuart, who had preceded me, crossed the 
Eappahannock, striking the enemy in his rear, making his 
brilliant night attack upon his camp at Catlett's Station, cap- 
turing many prisoners, personal baggage of General Pope, and 
his dispatch-book, containing information of value to us in this 
expedition. In the evening we moved near Jefferson ton. Pur- 
suing the instructions of the commanding general, I left Jef- 
fersontun on the morning of the 25th, to throw my command 
between Washington City and the army of General Pope, and 
to break up his railroad communication with the Federal 
capital. Taking the route by xAmissviJle, crossing Hedgeman 
Kivcr, one of the tributaries of the Rappahannock, at Hensou's 
]\lill, and moving via Orlean, we reached the vicinity of Salem, 
after a severe day's march, and bivouacked there for the 
niglit. 

On the next day (26th), the march was continued, diverging 
to the right at Salem, crossing the Bull Bun m(»untain rlirmigh 
TiiDrought'are Gap, and, passing Gainesville, we reacl;c"' P-is- 
toe Station on the Orange and Alexandria Baili' ;r 

sunset. 

At Gainesville I was joined by General Smart, wlicu after 



340 THE LAST TEAR OF THK WAR. 

f 

leaving the vicinity of Waterloo Bridge, about two o'cloct 
A. M., had, by a rapid march, come up in time to render all 
useful assistance. He kept upon my right flank during the 
residue of the day. My command was now in rear of General 
Pope's army, separating it from the Federal capital and its 
base of supply. As we approached Bristoe Station, the sound 
of cars coming from the direction of Warrenton Junction was 
heard, and General Ewell divided his force so as to take simul- 
taneous possession of the two points of the railroad. Colonel 
Munford, with the Second Virginia Cavalry, co-operated in 
this movement. Two trains of cars and some prisoners were 
captured, the largest portion of the small Federal force at that 
point making its escape. Learning that the enemy had col- 
lected at Manassas Junction, a station about seven miles dis- 
tant, stores of great value, I deemed it important that no time 
should be lost in securing them. Notwithstanding the dark- 
ness of the night, and the fatiguing march which would, since 
dawn, be over thirty miles, before reaching the junction, Brig- 
adier-General Trimble volunteered to proceed there forthwith, 
with the Twentj'-first l!^orth Carolina (-Lieutenant-Colonel Ful- 
ton commanding), and the Twenty-first Georgia (Major Glover 
commanding), in all, about five hundred men, and capture the 
place. I accepted the gallant offer, and gave him orders to 
move without delay. In order to increase the prospect of suc- 
cess, Major-General Stuart, with a portion of his cavalry, was 
subsequently directed to move forward, and, as the ranking- 
officer, to take command of the expedition. The duty was 
cheerfully undertaken by all who were assigned to it, and 
most promptly and successfully executed. Notwithstanding 
the Federal fire of musketry and artillery, our infantry dis- 
persed the troops placed there for the defence of the place, 
and captured eight guns, with seventy-two horses, equipments, 
and ammunition complete, immense supplies of commissary 
and quartermast-er stores, upwards of two hundred new tents; 
and General Trimble also reports the capture of over three 
hundred prisoners, and one hundred and seventy-five horses, 
exclusive of those belonging to the artillery, besides recovering 
over two hundred negroes. The next morning, the divisions 
under command of Generals Hill and Taliaferro, moved to 
Manassas Junction, the division of General Ewell remaining 



APPENDIX. 341 

at Bristoe Station. About a mile before reaching the junc- 
tion, Colonel Ba^'lor encountered and dispersed a regiment of 
Federal cavalry. Soon after the advance of the troops from 
Bristoe Station reached the junction, they were fired upon by 
a distant battery of the enemy posted in the direction of the 
battle-field of Manassas. This artillery was soon driven off, 
and retreated in the direction of Centreville. Soon after, a 
considerable body of Federal infantry, under Brigadier-Gen- 
eral Taylor, of New Jersey, came in sight, having, it is be- 
lieved, that morning left Alexandria in the cars, and boldly 
pushed forward to recover the position and stores which had 
been lost the previous night. The advance was made with 
great spirit and determination, and under a leader worthy of 
a better cause. Assailed by the batteries of Poague and Car- 
penter, and some of General HilPs division, and apparently 
seeing that there was danger of its retreat being cut off by 
our other troops if it continued to move forward, it soon com- 
menced retreating, and, being subjected to a heavy fire from 
our batteries, was soon routed, leaving its killed and wounded 
upon the field. Several brigades of General Hill's division 
pressed forward in pursuit. In this conflict the Federal com- 
mander, General Taylor, was mortally wounded. 

Our loss was small. In the afternoon of the same day, 
heavy columns of the enemy were seen approaching Bristoe 
Station from the direction of Warrenton Junction, and on the 
right of the railroad. General Ewell promptly made disposi- 
tions to meet them. So soon as the enemy came within range, 
the batteries of his division opened upon them from their sev- 
eral positions, as did also the Sixth and Eighth Louisiana and 
Sixtieth Georgia regiments. By this combined fire, two col- 
umns of the enemy, of not less than a brigade each, were 
driven back. But fresh columns soon supplied their places, 
and it was obvious that the enemy was advancing in heavy 
force. General Ewell's instructions were, if hard pressed, to 
fall back and join the main command at Manassas Junction, 
and orders were accordingly given for the withdrawal of his 
forces north of Broad Bun. At the moment of issuing this 
order, a portion of the troops were actively engaged, and the 
enemy advancing; and yet the withdrawal of the infantry and 
artillei-y was conducted with perfect order, General Early 



342 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAE. 

closing up the rear. The Federals halted near Bristoe Station, 
and General Ewell moved without further molestation, Colonel 
Munford, of the Second, and Colonel Rosser, of the Fifth Yir- 
ginia Cavalry, bringing up his rear to Manassas. The destruc- 
tion of the railroad-bridge across Broad Run was intrusted to 
Lieutenant (now Captain) Boswell, of the engineer corps, under 
whose superintendence the duty w^as promptly and efficiently 
executed. Orders were given to supply the troops with ra- 
tions and other articles which they could properly make sub- 
servient to their use from the captured property. It was vast 
in quantity and of great value, comprising fifty thousand 
pounds of bacon, one thousand barrels of corn-beef, two thou- 
sand barrels of salt pork, two thousand barrels of flour, quar- 
termasters', ordnance, and sutlers' stores, deposited in buildings 
and filling two trains of cars. Having appropriated all that 
we could use. and unwilling that the residue should again fall 
into the hands of the enemy, who took possession of the place 
the following day, orders were given to destroy all that re- 
mained after supplying the immediate wants of the army. 
This Avas done during the night. 

General Taliaferro moved his division that night across to 
the Warrenton and Alexandria turnpike, pursuing the road to 
Sudley Mill, and crossing the turnpike in the vicinity of 
Groveton, halted near the battle-field on the 21st of July, 
1861. Ewell's and Hill's divisions joined Jackson's on the 28th. 
My command had hardly concentrated north of the turnpike 
before the enemy's advance reached the vicinity of Groveton 
from the direction of Warrenton. General Stuart kept me 
advised of the general movements of the enemy, whilst Colonel 
Rosser, of the cavalry, with his command, and Colonel Brad- 
ley T. Johnson, commanding Campbell's brigade, remained in 
front of the Federals and operated against their advance. Dis- 
positions were promptly made to attack the enemy, based upon 
the idea that he would continue to press forward upon the 
turnpike towards Alexandria. But as he did not appear to 
advance in force, and there was reason to believe his main 
body was leaving the road, and inclining towards Manassas 
Junction, my command was advanced through the woods, 
leaving Groveton on the left, until it reached a commanding 
position near Brawner's house. By this time it was near sun- 



APPENDIX. 343 

set, but his column appeared to be moving by witli its flank 
exposed. I determined to attack at once, which was vigor- 
ously done by the divisions of Taliafeiro and Ewell. The 
batteries of Wooding, Poague, and Carpenter were placed in 
position in front of Starke's brigade, and above the village of 
Groveton, and firing over the heads of our skirmishers, poured 
a heavy fire of shot and shell upon the enemy. This was 
responded to by a very heavy fire from the enemy, forcing 
onr batteries to select another position. By this time, Talia- 
ferro's command, with Lawton's and Trimble's brigades on his 
left, were advanced from the woods to the open field, and were 
now moving in gallant style until they reached an orchard on 
the right of our line, and were less than a hundred yards from 
a large force of the enemy. The conflict here was fierce and 
sanguinary. Although largely re-enforced, the Federals did 
not attempt to advance, but maintained their ground with 
obstinate determination. Both lines stood exposed to the dis- 
charge of musketry and artillery, until about nine o'clock, 
when the enemy slowly fell back, yielding the field to our 
troops. The loss on both sides was- heavy, and among our 
wounded were Major-General Ewell and Brigadier-General 
Taliaferro; the latter, after a few months, was able to assume 
his duties ; the former, I regret to say, is still disabled by his 
wound, and the army thus deprived of his valuable services. 

This obstinate resistance of the enemy appears to have been 
for the purpose of protecting the flank of liis column until it 
should pass the position occupied by our troops. Owing to 
the difliculty of getting artillery through the woods, I'did not 
have so much of that arm as I desired at the opening of the 
engagement ; but this want was met by Major Pelham, with 
the Stuart Horse Artillery, who dashed forward on my right 
and opened upon the enemy at a moment when his services 
were much needed. Although the enemy moved ofi" under 
cover of the night, and left us in quiet possession of the field, 
he did not long permit us to remain inactive, or in doubt as to 
his intention to renew tlie conflict. The next morning I found 
that he had abandoned the ground occupied as the battle-field 
the evening before, and had moved further to the east, and to 
my left, placing himself between my command and the Fed- 
eral capital. My troops on this day were distributed along, 



344: THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 

and in the vicinity of, the cut of an imfinishecl railroad (in- 
tended as a part of the track to connect the Manassas road 
directly with Alexandria) stretching from the Warrenton turn- 
pike in the direction of Sudley Mill. It was mainly along tlie 
excavation of this unfinished road that my line of battle was 
formed on the 29th: Jackson's division under Brigadier-General 
Starke, on the right ; Ewell's division, under Brigadier-General 
Lawton, in the centre, and Hill's division on the left. In the 
morning, about ten o'clock, the Federal artillery opened with 
spirit and animation upon our right, which was soon replied 
to by the battei'ies of Poagne, Carpenter, Dement, Brocken- 
brough and Latimer, under -Major Shumaker. This lasted for 
some time, when the enemy moved around more to our left to 
another point of attack. His next eifoit was directed against 
our left. This was vigorously repulsed by the batteries of 
Braxton, Crenshaw, and Pegram. About two o'clock p. m., 
the Federal infantry, in large force, advanced to the attack of 
our left, occupied by the division of General Hill. It pressed 
forward in defiance of our fatal and destructive fire with great 
determination, a portion of it crossing a deep cut in the rail- 
road-track, and penetrating in heavy force an interval of near 
a hundred and seventy-five yards, which separated the right 
of Gregg's from the left of Thomas's brigade. For a short time 
Gregg's brigade, on the extreme left, was isolated from the 
main body of the command. But the Fourteenth South Car- 
olina regiment, then in reserve, with the Forty-ninth Georgia, 
left of Colonel Tliomas's, attacked the exultant enemy with 
vigor, and drove them back across the railroad-track with 
great slaughter. General McGowan reports that the opposing 
forces, at one time, delivered their volleys into each other at 
the distance of ten paces. Assault after assal^lt was made on 
the left, exhibiting, on the part of the enemy, great pertinacity 
and determination, but every advance was most successfully 
and gallantly driven back. General Hill reports that six sep- 
arate and distinct assaults* were thus met and repulsed by his 
division, assisted by Hay's brigade. Colonel Forno command- 
ing. By this time the brigade of General Gregg, which, from 
its position on the extreme left, was most exposed to the ene- 
my's attack, had nearly expended its ammunition. It had 
suffered severely in its men, and all its field-officers, except 



APPENDIX. 345 

two, were killed or wounded. About four o'clock it had been 
assisted by Hay's brigade (Colonel Forno). It was now retired 
to the rear to take some repose after seven houi's of severe service 
and General Early's brigade, of Swell's division, with the Eighth 
Louisiana regiment, took its place. On reaching his position, 
General Early found that the enemy had obtained possession 
of the railroad and a piece of wood in front, there being at this 
point a deep cut, which furnished a strong defence. Moving 
through a field, he advanced upon the enemy, drove them 
from the wood and railroad-cut with great slaughter, and fol- 
lowed in pursuit some two hundred yards. The Tiiirteenth 
Georgia at the same time advanced to the railroad and crossed 
with Early's brigade: As it was not desirable to bring on a 
general engagement that evening, General Early was recalled 
to the railroad, where Thomas, Pender, and Ai'cher had firmly 
maintained their positions during the day. Early kept his 
position there until the following morning. Brigadier-General 
Field and Colonel Forno (commanding Hay's brigade) were 
severely wounded. Brigadier-General Trimble was also seri- 
ously wounded. During the day, a force of the enemy pene- 
trated the wood in my rear, endangering the safety of my 
ambulances and train. Upon being advised of this, by Gen- 
eral Stuart, I sent a body of infantry to drive them from the 
wood. But, in the mean time, the vigilant Pelham had un- 
limbered his battery and dispersed that portion of tlieni which 
had reached the wood. At a later period, Major Patrick, of 
the cavalry, who was by General Stuart intrusted with guard- 
ing the train, was attacked, and although it was promptly and 
effectually repulsed, it was not without the loss of that intrepid 
officer, who fell in the attack, whilst setting an example of gal- 
lantry to his men well worthy of imitation. During the day, 
the commanding general arrived, and also General Longstreet, 
with his command. On the following day (30th), my com- 
mand occupied the ground, and the divisions the same relative 
position to each other, and to the field, which they held the 
day before, forming the left wing of the army. General Long- 
street's command formed the right wing. A large quantity 
of artillery was posted upon a commanding eminence in the 
centre. 

After some desultory skirmishing and heavy cannonading 



346 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAK. 

during the day, tlio Fecleriil infantry, about four o'clock in the 
evening, moved from under cover of tlie wood and advanced 
in several lines, first engaging the right, but soon extending 
its attack to the centre and left. In a few moments our entire 
line was engaged in a fierce and sanguinary struggle with the 
enemy. As one line was repulsed, another took its place and 
pressed forward as if determined, by force of numbers and fury 
of assault, to drive us from our positions. So impetuous and 
well sustained were these onsets as to induce me to send to 
the commanding general for re-enforcements, but the timely 
and gallant advance of General Longstreet, on the right, re- 
lieved my troops from the pressure of overwhelming numbers, 
and gave to those brave men the chances -of a more equal con- 
flict. As Longstreet pressed upon the right, the Federal ad- 
vance was checked, and soon a general advance of my whole 
line was ordered. Eagerly and fiercely did each brigade press 
forward, exhibiting in parts of the field scenes of close en- 
counter and murderous strife not witnessed often in the turmoil 
of battle. The Federals gave way before our troops, fell back 
in disorder, and fled precipitately, leaving their dead and 
wounded on the field. During their retreat the artillery 0})ened 
Avitli destructive power upon the fugitive masses. The infantry 
followed until darkness put an end to the pursuit. 

Our loss was heavy; that of the enemy, as shown by the 
battle-field, of which we were in possession, much heavier. 
Among the losses was Colonel Baylor, commanding Winder's 
brigade, who fell in front of his brigade, whilst nobly leading 
it on to the charge. We captured eight pieces of artillery, 
with their caissons, and six thousand five hundred and twenty 
small arms were collected from the battle-field. 

It being ascertained next morning that the Federal army 
had retreated in the direction of Centreville, I was ordered by 
the commanding general to turn that position. Crossing Bull 
Kun at Sudley Ford, thence pursuing a country road until we 
reached the Little River turnpike, which we followed in the 
direction of Fairfax Courthouse until the troops halted for the 
niglit. Early next morning, September 1st, we moved for- 
ward, and late in the evening, after reacliing Ox Hill, came in 
contact with the enemy, who were in position on our right 
and front, covering his line of retreat from Centreville to Fair- 



APPENDIX. 3i7 

fax Courthouse. Our Hue of battle was formed — General 
Hill's division on the right ; Ewell's division, General Lawton 
commanding, in the centre; and Jackson's division. General 
Starke commanding, on the left — all on the right of the turn- 
pike road. . Artillery was posted on an eminence to the left of 
the road. The brigades of Branch and Field, Colonel Brock- 
enbrough commanding the latter, were sent forward to feel 
and engage the enemy. A cold and drenching thunder shower 
swept over the field at this time, striking directly into the faces 
of our troops. These two brigades gallantly engaged the ene- 
my, but so severe was the fire in front and flank of Branch's 
brigade, as to produce in it some disorder and falling back. 
The brigades of Gregg, Thomas, and Pender were then thrown 
into the fight. Soon a portion of EwelFs division became en- 
gaged. The conflict now raged with great fury, the enemy 
obstinately and desperately contesting the ground until their 
Generals Kearney and Stephens fell in front of Thomas's bri- 
gade, after which they retired from the field. 

By the following morning the Federal army had entirely 
disappeared from our view, and it soon appeared, by a report 
from General Stuart, that it had passed Fairfax Courthouse, 
and had moved in the direction of Washington City. 

On the 3d of September we left Ox Hill, taking the i'oad by 
Dranesville and Leesburg, and on the 4th bivouacked near the 
Big Spring, between Leesburg and the Potomac. 

The oflicial reports of the casualties of my command, in i.ts 
operations from the Rappahannock to the Potomac, will show 
a loss of seventy-five ofiicers killed and two hundred and 
seventy -three wounded, seven hundred and thirty non-com- 
missioned officers and officers and privates killed, three thou- 
sand two hundred and seventy-four wounded, and thirty-five 
missing, making a total loss of four thousand three hundred 
and eighty-seven. 

Colonel S. Crutchfield, chief of artillery, discharged his duties 
well. The conduct of ofiicers and men during the various 
enffaffements described was such as to entitle them to o-reat 
praise. The wounded were skilfully cared for by medical 
director. Dr. Hunter McGuire. In the transmission of orders 
I was greatly assisted, during the expedition, by the following 
members of mv stafl": Colonel A. Smead, assistant insjjector- 



348 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

general ; Major E. F. Paxton, acting assistant adjutant-gen- 
eral ; Captain R. E. Wilbourn, chief signal officer; First- 
Lieutenant II. It. Douglas, assistant inspector-general ; First- 
Lieutenant J, G. Morrison, aid-de-camp, and Colonel William 
L. Jackson, volunteer aid-de-camp. Captain Wilbourn was 
so severely wounded at the battle of Groveton as to be unable 
to go further with the army. The ordnance, quartermaster, 
and commissary departments were well managed by their 
respective chiefs, Majors G. H. Baer, J. A. Harman, and W. 
J. Hawks. 

For further information, respecting the detailed movements 
of troops and the conduct of individuals, I would respectfully 
refer you to the accompanying reports. 

For these great and signal victories our sincere and humble 
thanks are due unto Almighty God, We should in all things 
acknowledge the hand of Him who reigns in heaven and rules 
among the armies of men. In view of the arduous labors and 
great privation^ the troops were called to endure, and the 
isolated and perilous position which the command occupied, 
while engaged with greatly superior numbers of the enemy, 
we can but express the grateful conviction of our mind, that 
God was with us and gave to us the victory, and unto His 
holy name be the praise. 

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

T. J. Jackson, Lieutenant-General. 



Headqtjartees Second Coeps, A. N. V., April 23, 1863. 
Brigadiek^General K. H. Chilton, A. A. General : 

General — I have the honor, herewith, to submit a report of 
the operations of m.y command from the 5th to the 27th of 
September, 1862, embracing the capture of Harper's Ferry, 
the engagement at Shepherdstown, and so much of the battle 
of Sharpsburg as was fought by the troops under my com- 
. mand : 

My command comprised A. P. Hill's division, consisting of 
the brigades of Branch, Gregg, Field (Colonel Brockenbrough, 
commanding), Pender, Archer, and Colonel Thomas, with the 
batteries of the division, under Lieutenant-Colonel P. L. 



APPENDIX. 349 

Walker; Ewell's division, under Brigadier-General Lawton, 
consisting of the brigades of Early, Hays (Colonel Strong), 
Trimble (Colonel Walker), and Lawton (Colonel Douglas), 
with the artillery, under Major Courtnay, and Jackson's divi- 
sion, under Brigadier-General Starke, consisting of the brigades 
of Winder (Colonel Grigsby), Jones (Colonel B. T. Johnson), 
Taliaferro (Colonel Warren), and Starke (Colonel Stafford), 
with the artillery under Major Shumaker, chief of artillery. 

On the 5th of September my command crossed the Poto- 
mac at White's Ford, and bivouacked that night near the 
Three Springs, in the State of Maryland. Not having any 
cavalry with me except the Black Horse, under Captain Ran- 
dolph, I dii-ected him, after crossing the Potomac, to take part 
of his company and scout to the right, in order to avoid a 
surprise of the column from that direction. For the thorough 
and efficient manner in which this duty was dischai-ged, and 
for the valuable service rendered generally, whilst attached to 
my headquarters, I desire to make special mention of this 
company and its officers. Captain Randolph and Lieutenants 
Paine, Tyler, and Smith, who frequently transmitted orders 
in the absence of staff-officers. 

The next day we arrived in the vicinity of Frederick City. 
Jackson's division encamped near its suburbs, except the bri- 
gade of General Jones (Colonel Bradley T. Johnson command- 
ing), which was posted in the city as a provost-guard. Ewell's 
and Hill's divisions occnpied positions near the railroad-bridge 
over the Monocacy, guarding the approaches from Washington 
City. • 

In obedience to instructions from the commanding general, 
and for the purpose of capturing the Federal forces and stores 
then at Martinsburg and Harper's Ferry, my command left 
the vicinity of Frederick City on the 10th, and passing rapidly 
through Middletown, Boonsboi-ough, and Williamsport, re- 
crossed the Potomac into Virginia, at Light's Ford, on the 
11th. General Hill moved with his division on the turnpike, 
direct from Williamsport to Martinsburg. The divisions of 
Jackson and Ewell proceeded towards the North Mountain 
depot, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, about seven miles 
northwest of Martinsburg. They bivouacked that night in 
the vicinity of the depot in order to prevent the Federal forces, 



350 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 

then at Martinsbiirg, from escaping westwaixl unobserved. 
Major Myers, commanding the cavahT, sent part of his troops 
as far south as the Berkeley and Hampshire turnpike. Briga- 
dier-General White, who was in command of the Federal forces 
at Martinsburg, becoming advised of onr approach, evacuated 
the place on the night of the 11th, and retreated to Harper's 
Ferry. 

O.n the morning of the 12th our cavahy entered tlie town, 
as, in the course of the day, did the main body of my com- 
mand. At this point, abandoned quartermaster, commissary, 
and ordnance stores fell into our hands. Proceeding thence 
towards Harper's Ferry, about eleven o'clock a. m., on the 
following morning (13th), the head of our column came in 
view of the enem}', drawn up in force upon Bolivar Heights. 
General Hill, who was in tlie advance, went into camp near 
Hull town, about two miles from the enemy's position. The 
two other divisions encamped near by. 

The commanding general having directed Major-General 
McLaws to move with liis own and General R. H. Anderson's 
divisions to take possession of tlie Maryland Heights overlook- 
ing Harper's Ferry, and Brigadier-General J. G. "Walker, pur- 
suing a different route, to cross tlie Potomac and move u]) tliat 
river on the Virginia side and occupy the Loudon Heights, 
both for the purpose of co-operating with me, it became neces- 
sar}' before making the attack to ascertain whether tliey were 
in position. Failing to learn the fact by signals, a courier 
was dispatched to each of those points for the required infor- 
mation. During the night the courier to the Loudon Heights 
returned with a message from General Walker that he was in 
position. In the mean time. General McLaws had attacked 
the Federal force posted to defend the Maryland Heights, had 
routed it, and taken possession of that commanding position. 
The Potomac River flowed between the positions respectively 
occupied by General McLaws and myself, and the Shenandoah 
separated me from General Walker, and it became advisable, 
as the speediest mode of communication, to resort to signals. 
Before the necessary orders were thus transmitted, the day was 
far advanced. 

The enemy had, b}" fortifications, strengthened the natui-ally 
strong position he occupied along Bolivar Heights, extending 



APPENDIX. 351 

from near the Shenandoali to the Potomac. McLaws and 
"Walker, being thus separated from the enemy, by intervening 
rivers, would afford no assistance beyond the fire of their artil- 
lery and guarding certain avenues of escape to the enemy. 
And from the reports received from them, by signals, in con- 
sequence of the distance and range of their guns, not much 
could be expected from their artillery, so long as the enemy 
retained his advanced position on Bolivar Heights. 

In the afternoon. General Hill was ordered to move along 
the left bank of the Shenandoah, turn the enemy's left, and 
enter Harper's Ferry. General Lawton, commanding Ewell's 
division, was directed to move along the turnpike for the pur- 
pose of supporting General Hill, and of otherwise operating 
against the enemy to his left. General J. R. Jones, com- 
manding Jackson's division, was directed, with one of his 
brigades and a battery of artillery, to make a demonstration 
against the enemy's right, whilst the remaining part of his 
command, as a reserve, moved along the turnpike. Major 
Massie, comm.anding the cavalry, was directed to keep upon 
our left flank Iw the purpose of preventing the enemy from 
escaping. Brigadier-General Walker guarded against an escape 
across the Shenandoah River. Fearing lest the enemy should 
attempt to escape across the Potomac, by means of signals I 
called the attention of Major-General McLaws, commanding on 
the Maryland Heights, to the propriety of guarding against 
such an attempt. The demonstration on the left against the 
enemy's right was made by Winder's brigade (Colonel Grigsby 
commanding). It was ordered to secure a commanding hill to 
the left of the heights, near the Potomac. Promptly dispersing 
some cavalry, this eminence, from which the batteries of 
Poaguc and Carpenter subsequently did such admirable execu- 
tion, was secured without difficulty. In execution of the order 
given Major-General Hill, he moved obliquely to the right 
until he struck the Shenandoah River. Observing an eminence 
crowning the extreme left of the enemy's line, occupied by 
infantry, but without artillery, and protected only by an abatis 
of fallen timber, Pender, Archer, and Brockenbrough were 
directed to gain the crest of that hill, while branch and Gregg 
were directed to march along the river, and, during the night, 
to take advantage of the ravines, cutting the precipitous banks 



362 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

of the river, and establish themselves on the plain to the left 
and rear of the enemy's works. Thomas followed as a reserve. 
The execution of the first movement was intrusted to Brigadier- 
General Pender, who accomplished it with slight resistance ; 
and during the night, Lieutenant-Colonel Walker, chief of 
artillery of Hill's division, brought up the batteries of Captains 
Pegram, Mcintosh, Davidson, Braxton, and Crenshaw, and 
established them upon the position thus gained. Branch and 
Gregg also gained the positions indicated for them, and day- 
break found them in rear of the enemy's line of defence. 

As directed, Brigadier-General Lawton, commanding EwelFs 
division, moved on the turnpike in three columns — one on the 
road, and another on each side of it — until he reached Hull- 
town, when he formed line of battle, and advanced to the 
woods on School-house Hill. The division laid on their arms 
during the night, Lawton and Trimble being in line on the 
right of the road, and Hays on the left, M'ith Early immedi- 
ately in his rear. During the night. Colonel Crutchfield, my 
chief of artillery, crossed ten guns of Ewell's division over the 
Shenandoah, and established them on its right bank, so as to 
pnfilade the enemy's position on Boliver Heights, and take his 
nearest and most formidable fortifications in reverse. The 
other batteries of Ewell's division were placed in position on 
School-house Hill, on each side of the road. 

At dawn, September 15th, General Law^ton advanced his 
division to the front of the woods, Lawton's brigade (Colonel 
Douglas commanding) moved by flank to the bottom between 
School-house Hill and Bolivar Heights, to support the ad- 
vance of Major-General Hill. Lieutenant-Colonel Walker 
opened a rapid enfilade fire from all his batteries at about one 
thousand yards range. The batteries on School-house Hill 
attacked the enemy's lines in front. In a short time the guns 
of Captains Brown, Garber, Latimer, and Dement, under the 
direction of Colonel Crutchfield, opened from the rear. The 
batteries of Poague and Carpenter opened fire upon the 
enemy's right. The artillery upon the Loudon Heights, of 
Brigadier-General Walker's command, under Captain French, 
which had silenced the enemy's artillery near the superinten- 
dent's house on the preceding afternoon, again opened upon 
Harper's Ferry, and also some guns of Major-General McLaws 



APPENDIX. 353 

from the Maryland Heights, In an hour the enemy's fire 
seemed to be silenced,, and the batteries of General Hill were 
ordered to cease their fire, which was the signal for storming 
the works. General Pender had commenced his advance, 
when the enemy again opening, Pegram and Crenshaw moved 
forward their batteries, and poured a rapid fire into the 
enemy. The white flag was now displayed, and shortly after- 
wards, Brigadier-General "White (the commanding ofiicer. Col- 
onel D. S. Miles, having been mortally wounded), with a gar- 
rison of about eleven thousand men, surrendered as prisoners 
of war. Under this capitulation, we took possession of seventy- 
three pieces of artillery, some thirteen thousand small arms, 
and other stores. Liberal terms were granted to General 
White, and the officers under his command, in the surrender, 
which, I regret to say, do not seem, from subsequent events, to 
have been properly appreciated by their government. 

Leaving General Hill to receive the surrender of the Federal 
troops, and take the requisite steps for securing the captured 
stores, I moved, in obedience to orders from the commanding 
general, to rejoin him in Maryland, with the remaining di- 
visions of my command. By a severe night march, we 
reached the vicinity of Sharpsburg on the morning of the 16th. 

By direction of the commanding general, I advanced on the 
enemy, leaving Sharpsburg to the right, and took position to 
the left of General Longstreet, near Dunkard church, Ewell's 
division (General Lawton commanding) forming the right, and 
Jackson's division (General J. R. Jones commanding) forming 
the left of my command. .Major-General Stuart, with the 
cavalry, was on my left. Jackson's division (General Jones 
commanding) was formed partly in an open field, and partly 
in the woods, with its right resting upon the Sharpsburg and 
Hagerstown turnpikes ; Winder's and Jones' brigades being in 
front, and Taliaferro's and Starke's brigades a short distance in 
their rear, and Poague's battery on a knoll in front. 

Ewell's division followed that of Jackson to the woods on 
the left of the road near the church. Early's brigade was then 
formed on the left of the line of Jackson's division, to guard 
its flank, and Hay's brigade was formed in its rear. Lawton's 
and Trimble's brigades remained during the evening, with 
arms stacked, near the church. 

23 



354 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 

A battery of the enemy, some five hundred yards to the 
front of Jackson's division, opening fire upon a battery to the 
right, was silenced in twenty minutes by a rapid and well- 
directed fire from Poague's battery. Other batteries of the 
enemy opened soon after upon our lines, and the firing con- 
tinued until after dark. 

About ten p. m., Lawton's and Trimble's brigades advanced 
to the front to relieve the command of Brigadier-General Hood 
(on the left of Major-Gen eral D. H. Hill), which had been 
more or less engaged during the evening. Trimble's brigade 
was posted on the right, next to Ripley's, of D. H. Hill's 
division, and Lawton's on the left. 

The troops slept that night upon their arms, disturbed by 
the occasional fire of the pickets of the two armies, who were 
in close proximity to each other. At the first dawn of day 
skirmishing commenced in front, and in a slrort time the Fed- 
eral batteries, so posted on the opposite side of the Antietam as 
to enfilade my line, opened a severe and damaging fire. This 
was vigorously replied to by the batteries of Poagiie, Carpen- 
ter, Brockenbrough, Eaines, Caskie, and Wooding. About 
sunrise, the Federal infantry advanced in heavy force to the 
edge of the wood, on the eastern side .of the turnpike, driving 
in our skirmishers. Batteries were opened in front from the 
wood with shell and canister, and our troops became exposed, 
for near an hour, to a terrific storm of shell, canister, and 
musketry. General Jones having been compelled to leave the 
field, the command of Jackson's division devolved upon Gen- 
eral Starke. With heroic spirit, our lines advanced to the con- 
flict, and maintained their position in the face of superior num- 
bers with stubborn resolution, sometimes driving the enemy 
before them, and sometimes compelled to fall back before their 
well-sustained and destructive fire. Fresh troops from time to 
time relieved the enemy's ranks, and the carnage on both sides 
was terrific. At this early hour, General Starke was killed, 
Colonel Douglas (commanding Lawton's brigade) was also 
killed. General Lawton, commanding division, and Colonel 
Walker, commanding brigade, were severely wounded. More 
than half of the brigades of Lawton and Hays were either 
killed or wounded, and more than a third of Trimble's, and all 
the regimental commanders in those brigades, except two, were 



APPENDIX. 355 

killed or wounded. Thinned in their ranks, and exhausted of 
their ammunition, Jackson's division and the brigades of Law- 
ton, Haj's, and Trimble retired to the rear, and Hood, of 
Longstreet's command, again took the position from which he 
had been before relieved. In the mean time, General Stnart 
moved his artillery to a position nearer to the main command, 
and more in our rear. Early being now directed, in conse 
quence of the disability of General Lawton, to take command 
of EwelPs division, returned with his brigade (with the excep- 
tion of the Thirteenth Virginia regiment, which remained with 
General Stuart) to the piece of wood where he had left the 
other brigades of his division when he was separated from 
them. Here he found that the enemy had advanced his in- 
fantry near the wood, in which was the Dimkard church, and 
had planted a battery across the turnpike, near tlie edge of the 
wood and an ojren field, and that the brigades of Lawton, 
Hays, and Trimble had fallen back some distance to the rear. 
Finding here Colonels Grigsby and Stafford, with a portion of 
Jackson's division, which formed on his left, he determined to 
maintain his position there if re-enforcements could be sent to 
his support, of which he was promptly assured. Colonel 
Grigsby, with his small command, kept in check the advance 
of tlie enemy on the left flank, while General Early attacked, 
with great vigor and gallantry, the column on his right and 
front. The force in front was giving way under this attack, 
when another heavy column of Federal troops were seen mov- 
ing across the plateau on his left flank. By this time the ex- 
pected re-enforcements, consisting of Semmes' and Anderson's 
brigades and a part of Barksdale's, of McLaw's division, 
arrived, and the whole, including Grigsby's command, now 
united, charged upon the enemy, checking his advance, then 
driving him back, with great slaughter, entirely from and 
beyond this wood, and gaining possession of our original 
position. No further advance, beyond demonstrations, was 
made by the enemy on the left. In the afternoon, in obedience 
to instructions from the commanding general, I moved to the 
left with a view to turning the Federal right; but I found his 
numerous artillery so judiciously established in their front and 
extending so near to the Potomac, which here makes a remark- 
able bend, as will be seen by reference to the map herewith 



356 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAK. 

annexed, as to render it inexpedient to hazard the attempt. In 
this movement, Major-General Stuart had the advance, and 
acted his part well. This otiicer rendered valuahle service 
throughout the day. His bold use of artillery secured for us 
an important position, which, had the enemy possessed, might 
have commanded our left. At the close of the day, my troops 
held the ground which they had occupied in the morning. 
The next day we remained in position awaiting another attack. 
The enemy continued in heavy force west of the Antietam on 
our left, but made no further movement to the attack. 

I refer you to the report of Major-General A. P. Hill for 
the operations of his 'command in the battle of Sharpsburg. 
Arriving upon the battle-field from Harper's Ferry at half-past 
two o'clock of the 17th, he reported to the commanding 
general, and was by him directed to take position on the right. 
I have not embraced the movements of his division, nor his 
killed and wourded of that action, in my report. 

Early in the morning of the 19th we recrossed the Potomac 
Piver into Virginia near Shepherdstown. The promptitude and 
success with which this movement was effected reflects the 
highest credit upon the skill and energy of Major Harman, 
chief quartermaster. In the evening, the command moved on 
the road leading to Martinsburg, except Lawton's brigade, 
(Colonel Lamar, of the Sixty-first Georgia, commanding,) which 
was left on the Potomac Heights. 

On the same day the enemy appeared in considerable force 
on the northern side of the Potomac, and commenced planting 
heavy batteries on its heights. In the evening, the Federals 
commenced crossing under the protection of their guns, driving 
off Lawton's brigade and General Pendleton's artillery. By 
morning, a considerable force had crossed over. Orders were 
dispatched to Generals Early and Hill, who had advanced 
some four miles on the Martinsburg road, to return and drive 
back the enemy. General Hill, who was in the advance, as 
he approached the town, formed his line of battle in two lines, 
the first composed of the brigades of Pender, Gregg, and 
Thomas, under the command of General Gregg, and the second 
of Lane's, Archer's, and Brockenbrough's brigades, under com- 
mand of General Archer. General Early, with the brigades 
of Early, Trimble, and Hays, took position in the wood on the 



APPENDIX. 357 

right and left of the road leading to the ford. The federal 
infantry lined the high banks of the Virginia shore, while their 
artillery, formidable in numbers and weight of metal, crowned 
the opposite heights of tlie Potomac. General riilFs division 
advanced with great gallantry against the Federal infantry, in 
the face of a continuous discharge of shot and shell from their 
batteries. The Federals, massing in front of Pender, poured a 
heavy fire into his ranks, and then exte-iiding with a view to 
turn his left, Archer promptly formed on Pender's left, when 
a simultaneous charge was made, which drove the enemy into 
the river, followed by an appalling scene of the destruction of 
human life. Two hundred prisoners were taken. This position, 
on the bank of the river, we continued to hold that day, al- 
though exposed to the enemy's guns and within range of his 
sharp-shooters, posted near the Chesapeake and Ohio Cunal. 
Our infantry remained at the river until relieved by cavalry, 
under General Fitzhugh Lee. 

On the evening of the 20th the command moved from 
Shepherdstown and encamped near the Opequon, in the vicinity 
of Martinsburg. We remained near Martinsburg until the 27th, 
when we moved to Bunker Hill, in the county of Berkeley. 

The official list of casualities of my command-, during the 
period embraced in this report, will show that we sustained a 
loss of thirty-eight officers killed and one hundred and seventy- 
one wounded, of three hundred and thirteen con-commissioned 
officers and privates killed, one thousand eight hundred and 
fifty-nine wounded, and fifty-seven missmg ; making a total 
of two thousand four hundred and thirty-eight killed, wounded, 
and missing. 

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

T. J. Jackson, Lieutenant-General. 
Official : 

Chaeles J. Faulkner, Lieut.-Col. and A. A. G. 



358 THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR. 



EEPORT OF LIEUTEE^ANT-GENEEAL LONGSTREET. 

Headquabters FmsT Army Corps, A. N. V., 
Near Fredericksburg, Va., Dec. 20, 1865. 
Brigadier-General R. H. CnrLTON, 

Assistant Adjutant and Inspector-General : 
General — Upon ray arrival at Fredericksburg, on the 19th 
of November, the troops of this command were assigned to 
positions as follows — viz., McLaws' division npon the heights 
immediately behind the city and sonth of the Telegraph road ; 
And'^j'son's division on McLaws' left and occupying the heights 
as far as Taylor's Hill on the Rappahannock ; Pickett's division 
on McLaws' right, and extending to the rear along the margin 
of the wood which skirts Deep Run Yalley ; Hood's division 
near Hamilton's Crossing of the raili-oad ; Ransom's division in 
reserve, near my headquarters. Our batteries were assigned 
]iositions along the heiglits by General Pendleton, Colonel Ca- 
bell, Colonel Alexander, and Captain Johnson (Colonel Wal- 
ton being absent sick). Pits were made for the protection of 
these batteries, under the supervision of those oflScers. A por- 
tion of General Pendleton's reserve artillery was assigned to 
the heights with Major-General McLaws' division. Colonel 
Walton's (Washington Artillery) occupied the heights at 
Marye's Hill, and a portion of Colonel Alexander's reserve 
occupied the other portion of Anderson's front, extending to 
the Taylor House on our left. The brigade batteries that were 
not assigned to positions on the heights were held in readiness 
to co-operate with their commands, or for any other service 
that might be required of them. Our picket-line was estab- 
lished along the river-bank, extending from Bank's Ford to Tal- 
cott battery, the most important portion of it under the imme- 
diate orders of Major-General McLaws. Upon the approach 
(if General Jackson's army. Hood's divison was closed in upon 
the right of Pickett, and put in position upon the heights on 
the opposite side of Deep Run Valley. Li addition to the 
natural strength of the position, ditches, stone-fences, and road- 



APPENDIX. 359 

cuts were found along different portions of the line, and parts 
of General McLaws' line were further strengthened by rifle 
trenches and abatis. 

The enemy held quiet possession of the Stafford Heights 
until three o'clock on the morning of the 11th, when our signal 
guns gave notice of his approach. The troops, being at their 
different camp grounds, were formed immediately and marched 
to their positions along the line. Eansom's division was 
ordered to take a sheltered position in easy supporting dis- 
tance of the batteries on the Marye Hill. Before the troops 
got to their positions, McLaws' pickets (Barksdale's brigade) 
engaged the enemy at the river, and from time to time, drove 
back different working-parties engaged in laying the bridges. 
The enemy was compelled, eventually, to abandon his plan of 
laying the bridges, and began to throw his troops across the 
river in boats, under cover of the fire of his sharp-shooters, and 
an hundred and fifty odd pieces of artillery. 

At many points along the river-bank our troops could get 
no protection from the artillery fire. This was particularly 
the case at the mouth of Deep Run, where the enemy suc- 
ceeded in completing his bridge early in the afternoon. Later 
in the afternoon he succeeded in throwing large bodies of 
troops across, at the city, by using his boats. Barksdale, how- 
ever, engaged them fiercely at ever}^ j)oint, and with remark- 
able success. Soon after dark, General McLaws ordered 
Barksdale's brigade to retire. The general was so confident of 
his position that a second order was sent him before he would 
yield the field. His brigade was then relieved by that of 
Brigadier-General T. R. R. Cobb, which was placed by Gen- 
eral McLaws along the Telegraph road, in front of Marye's 
House (a stone fence and cut along this road gave good pro- 
tection against infantry). When Cobb's brigade got into posi- 
tion. Ransom's division was withdrawn and placed in reserve. 
During the night the enemy finished his bridges and began to 
throw his troops across. 

His movements, early on the 12th, seemed to be directly 
against our right ; but when the fog lifted, columns were seen 
opposite Fredericksburg, the head of them then crossing at the 
bridges opposite the city. Ransom's division was moved back 
to the Marye Hill. Featherston's brigade of Anderson's 



360 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAR. 

division (previously occupying this hill) was closed in upon 
the other brigades of Anderson. The entire day was occupied 
by the enemy in throwing his forces across the river, and de- 
ploying his columns. Our batteries were opened upon the 
masses of inftmtry whenever they were in certain range. Our 
fire invariably drew that of the enemy's on the opposite 
heights, and they generally kept up the fire long after our bat- 
teries had ceased. 

Early on the morning of the 13th I rode to the right of my 
position, Hood's division. The dense fog in the early twiliglit 
concealed the enemy from view ; but his commands, " For- 
ward, guide centre, march !" were distinctly heard at differ- 
ent points near my right. From the direction of the sound, 
and the position of his troops the day before, I concluded that 
his attack would be upon General Jackson, at some point be- 
yond my right. I therefore rode back to a point near the 
centre of my forces, giving notice to General Hood that the 
enemy would attack General Jackson beyond his right, that he 
should watch carefully the movements, atid when an apportu- 
nity offered, he should move forward and attack the enemy's 
flank. Similar instructions were given to General Pickett, 
with orders to co-operate with General Hood. The attack was 
made as had been anticipated. It did not appear to have all 
the force of a real attack, however, and General Hood did not 
feel authorized to make more than a partial advance. Where 
he did move out, he drove the enemy back in handsome style. 

About eleven o'clock a. m., I sent orders for the batteries 
to play upon the streets and bridges beyond the city, by way 
of diversion in favor of our right. The batteries had hardly 
opened, when the enemy's infantry began to move out towards 
my line. Our pickets in front of the Marye House were soon 
driven in, and the enemy began to deploy his forces in front 
of that point. Our artillery being in position, opened fire as 
soon as the masses became dense enough to warrant it. This 
fire was very destructive and demoralizing in its effects, and 
frequently made gaps in the enemy's ranks that could be seen 
at the distance of a mile. The enemy continued his advance 
and made his attack at the Marye Hill in handsome style. He 
did not meet the fire of our infantry with any heart, however, 
and was therefore readily repulsed. Another effort was speed- 



APPENDIX. 361 

ily made; but witli little more success. The attack was again 
renewed, and again repulsed. Other forces were seen preparing 
for another attack, when I suggested to General McLaws the 
propriety of re-enforcing his advanced line with a brigade. 
He had previously re-enforced with part of Kershaw's brigade 
and ordered forward the balance. About this time, Brigadier- 
General T. R. R. Cobb fell, mortally wounded, and almost 
simultaneously Brigadier-General J. R. Cooke was severely 
wounded. 

General Kershaw dashed to the front to take the command. 
General Ransom, on the Marye Hill, was charged with the 
immediate care of the point attacked, with orders to send for- 
ward additional re-enforcements, if it should become necessary, 
and to use Featherston's brigade (Anderson's division) if he 
should require it. 

Tlie attack upon our right seemed to subside about two 
o'clock, when I directed Major-General Pickett to send me two 
of his brigades. One (Kemper's) was sent to General Ransom, 
to be placed in some secure position to be ready in case it 
should be wanted. The other (Jenkins') was ordered to 
General McLaws, to replace that of Kershaw in his line. 

The enemy soon completed his arrangements for a renewed 
attack, and moved forward with nmch determination. He met 
with no better success than he had on the previous occasions. 
These efforts were I'epeated and continued from time to time 
till after night, when he left the field literally strewn with his 
dead and wounded. 

Colonel's "Walton's ammunition was exhausted about sunset, 
and his batteries were relieved by Colonel Alexander's. Orders 
were given for fresli supplies of ammunition, and for every 
thing to be prepared for a renewal of the battle at daylight. 

On the 14th tliere was little firing between the sharp-shooters. 
The enemy screening his forces under a slight descent in the 
ground, held a position about four hundred yards in front of 
us. In the afternoon, I sent Captain Latrobe, of my stafi^, to 
the left to place artillery in position to play along the enemy's 
line, with instructions to Colonel Alexander to use such artil- 
lery there as he might think proper. The point was selected 
and the pits made by light the following morning. General 
Ransom was also ordered to strengthen his position on the 



362 THE LAST TEAR OF THE WAK. 

Marye Hill by rifle trenches. Similar instructions were sent 
along the entire line. These jDreparations were made to meet 
the grand attack of the enemy, confidently cxpecUd on Monday 
morning. As the attack was not made, the artillery and 
General Ransom's sharp-shooters opened upon the enemy and 
drove him back to cover in the city. 

During the night, the enemy recrossed the river. His 
retreat was not discovered till he had crossed the river and 
cut his bridges at this end. Our sharp-shooters were moved 
forward, and our old positions resumed. 

Four hundred prisoners, fifty-five hundred stands of small 
arms, and two hundred and fifty thousand rounds of small- 
arm ammunition were captured. 

Our loss, for the number engaged, was quite heavy, Brig- 
adier-General T. E.. R. Cobb fell, mortally wounded, in the 
heat of the battle of the 13th. He defended his position with 
great gallantry and ability. In him we have lost one of our 
most promising officers and statesmen. A tabular statement 
and lists of the killed, wounded, and missing accompany this 
report. 

Much credit is due Major-General McLaws for his untiring 
zeal and ability in preparing his troops and his position for a 
successful resistance, and the ability with which he handled 
his troops after the attack. I would also mention, as particu- 
larly distinguished in the engagement of the 13th, Brigadier- 
Generals Ransom, Kershaw, and Cooke (severely wounded), 
and Colonel McMillan, who succeeded to the command of 
Cobb's brigade, and Colonel Walton (Washington Artillery), 
and Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander (reserve artillery). 

Brigadier General Barksdale, witli his brigade, held the 
enemy's entire army at the river-bank for sixteen hours, giving 
us abundance of time to complete our arrangements for battle. 
A more gallant and worth}' service is rarely accomplished by 
so small a force. 

I )-efer you to the reports of these officers for more detailed 
accounts of the engagements. I desire to call the attention of 
the government to the gallant officers and nien mentioned in 
their reports. 

Major-Generals Anderson, Pickett, and Hood, with their 
gallant divisions, were deprived of their opportunity by tho 



APPENDIX. 363 

unexpected and hasty retreat of the enemy. A portion of 
General Anderson's command was engaged in defending the 
passage of the river ; a portion of General Hood's in driving 
back the attack against our right ; and a portion of Pickett's 
did important service near the Marye Hill. I refer you to 
their reports for particular accounts. 

Major Garnett held three batteries in reserve, in the Yalley, 
between the positions of Generals Pickett and Hood, and 
was much disappointed not to have the opportunity to use 
them. 

My staff-officers, Major Sorrell, Lieutenant-Colonel Man- 
ning, Major Fairfax, Captain Latrobe, Captain Goree, and 
Lieutenant Blackwell, gave me their usual intelligent, willing 
aid. Major Haskell, Captain Young, and Captain Rodgers 
volunteered their assistance, and rendered important services. 

My thanks are also due to Surgeon Cullen, chief surgeon ; 
Major Mitchell, chief quartermaster; Major Moses, chief of 
the subsistence department ; and Captain Manning, signal 
officer, for valuable services in their respective departments. 
I have the honor to be, General, 

Most respectfully, your obedient servant, 

James Long street, 
Lieutenant-General Commanding. 



